Where can I see Hunters in the Snow?

It's at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Austria. Pieter Bruegel the Elder painted it in 1565 as part of a series depicting the months of the year.

What month does this represent?

It represents December-January (deep winter). Bruegel painted a series of six panels for the Antwerp merchant Niclaes Jongelinck, each showing a time of year. Three hunters and their dogs trudge homeward through snow toward a Flemish village. The frozen ponds below are alive with ice skaters.

What's the view in the painting?

Bruegel created a sweeping panoramic landscape seen from a high vantage point. Bare trees frame the foreground, snow-covered rooftops dot the middle ground, and jagged Alpine peaks rise in the background. The bird's-eye perspective was innovative: it makes the viewer feel suspended above the landscape.

How big is the painting?

It measures 117 cm × 162 cm (46.1 × 63.8 inches). The work oil on wood panel. Bruegel packed in extraordinary detail: you can count individual skaters, spot a bird trap, and see smoke rising from chimneys. Despite the cold subject, the scene radiates a sense of communal life.

What art movement is this?

It belongs to the Northern Renaissance. Bruegel was the greatest Flemish painter of the 16th century. His landscapes heightened the genre from background decoration to a primary subject. The film director Andrei Tarkovsky featured this painting prominently in his 1972 film Solaris.

Where to See Hunters in the Snow: Kunsthistorisches Museum

Hunters in the Snow

by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1565

StyleRenaissance

MediumOil Wood Panel

Palette

Year: 1565
Medium: Oil on panel
Size: 117 cm × 162 cm

Where to See It

Kunsthistorisches Museum

Vienna, Austria

Permanently housed

Museum Website Buy Tickets

The Artist

Pieter Bruegel the Elder

1525–1569

Flemish

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Pieter Bruegel the Elder painted this Hunters in the Snow in 1565, one of a series depicting the months or seasons. Three hunters trudge home through deep snow, their dogs exhausted, game scarce. A single fox dangles from one man's belt. Below them, villagers skate on frozen ponds while birds perch in bare branches.

The painting captures what historians call the "Little Ice Age," a period of harsh European winters. Bruegel set the scene in an imaginary alpine village, combining Flemish lowland details with mountainous terrain he'd observed traveling through the Alps. The result feels both specific and universal.

An Antwerp banker named Niclaes Jongelinck commissioned the series. In 1594, the city of Brussels gave this panel to Archduke Ernst as a diplomatic gift. It eventually reached the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, where it hangs today. The oak panel measures 117 by 162 centimeters. Filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky featured it prominently in Solaris and The Mirror, drawn to its melancholy beauty and sense of landscape as psychological space.

More by Pieter Bruegel the Elder

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Soldiers at Rest

Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston

Mountain landscape with a river

Pieter Bruegel the Elder

British Museum, London

Hunters in the Snow