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Children’s Games by Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1560

$100.00

Item no. PDPBW006-00

Order within 31d 00h 27m 51s to have it by ChristmasOrder by Mon, Nov 30, 11:59 PM ET

Ninety games in one square: Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s Children’s Games, from Vienna, on stretched canvas, framed, or on fine art paper.

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Subtotal $100.00
  • Printed to order in 1–3 business days
  • Free US shipping, tracked, 5–12 business days
  • 30-day returns and exchanges
  • Damage cover included: we remake and reship
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Questions about sizes or framing? Ask us

This painting is warm reds, earthy browns and fresh greens, and a cheap copy turns it flat and muddy. Our Bruegel Children’s Games print is made from the museum’s own photograph, unretouched, so every tiny child stays sharp.

Canvas, framed or paper

Stretched canvas. Printed on cotton canvas and stretched taut over a frame. The edges are mirror-wrapped, so the picture continues around the sides and none of it is lost to the fold.

Framed canvas. The same canvas, set in a black, white, natural wood or dark wood frame 0.83 in deep. The frame gives the work a finished edge and a little more presence on the wall.

Framed print. Printed on fine art matte paper and framed in solid pine, behind shatterproof plexiglass, in black, white, natural wood or dark wood. It arrives ready to hang. Framed sizes are measured on the outside of the frame.

Fine art print. Printed on 310gsm fine art matte paper, for framing your own way. It travels rolled and protected. From 18x24 inch.

Sizes

16x12 inch, 24x18 inch, 28x20 inch, 40x28 inch. Framed sizes are measured on the outside of the frame, so the visible painting is a little smaller.

On your wall

Its wide shape suits a living room, a study or the wall above a sofa. The reds, browns and greens look rich with cream, charcoal and walnut, and a natural wood or white frame suits it.

About the painting

Children’s Games by Pieter Bruegel the Elder

The painter of village life

Pieter Bruegel the Elder of Antwerp and Brussels made peasants, seasons and proverbs the subject of great paintings, packed with people, jokes and stories.

A square full of play

Children roll hoops, walk on stilts, ride hobby-horses, play leapfrog and blind man’s buff. Over 80 games have been identified.

Serious play

They have taken over the town hall itself. Perhaps, in God’s eyes, adult affairs are just as childish. Archduke Ernest bought it in 1594.

Listen to the story

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Read the story

A town square, packed with children, dozens and dozens of them. They roll hoops, walk on stilts, ride hobby-horses, spin tops, play leapfrog and blind man's buff. Some do handstands. Some blow up pigs' bladders like balloons. Some play with dolls.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder painted this in 1560. Historians have identified more than eighty different games in it.

It is a wonderful record of how children played nearly five hundred years ago, and many of the games are still played today.

But Bruegel may have meant more than that. The children have taken over the grand building at the centre of the square, perhaps the town hall. Writers of his time compared grown-ups to children, so absorbed in their games that they forget what really matters.

Look at how seriously every child plays. They are just as busy, and just as important to themselves, as any mayor or merchant.

The painting was bought in 1594 by Archduke Ernest of Austria, and it has been in the Habsburg collection in Vienna ever since.

Children's Games. Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1560.

How each piece is brought to life

Faithful to the original, and made to be felt on your wall.

  1. Children’s Games by Pieter Bruegel the Elder: a town square crowded with children rolling hoops, on stilts and leapfrogging

    Graded against the original

    We compare every work with the original as we grade it, keeping the artist’s colours true while bringing back their depth and glow. Every mark stays the artist’s own.

  2. Children’s Games by Pieter Bruegel the Elder as a stretched canvas above a linen lounge chair in a reading corner

    Printed for you

    Printed to order on cotton canvas or fine art paper, then framed if you chose a frame, in 1 to 3 business days.

  3. Children’s Games by Pieter Bruegel the Elder framed in natural oak above a cream sofa in a warm living room

    On your wall

    It arrives 5 to 12 business days later, tracked and free anywhere in the US. Framed pieces come ready to hang.

Questions

Is this the original painting?

No. The original hangs in a museum. What you receive is a fine art reproduction, remastered from the original and printed for you, with every mark where the artist left it.

Will the colour look flat?

This is where most reproductions disappoint, and it is where we spend the most time. Each work is graded side by side with the original: faithful to the artist’s colours, with the depth and warmth brought back, so it moves you on the wall the way it was meant to. Canvas reads a touch softer than a backlit screen, and every screen shows colour a little differently.

Will the edges be cropped?

Each size is a standard frame size, so we fit the painting by trimming a little from its edges. We never stretch or squash it, and we check every size by eye so no face, figure or signature is cut. On canvas the edges are mirror-wrapped, which keeps the whole picture on the front.

Which size is right for my wall?

Aim for about two-thirds the width of the furniture beneath it. Over a sofa or a sideboard, one of the two largest sizes will hold the wall. The size guide lists every size in inches and centimetres, with the kind of wall each one suits.

How long does it take?

Your piece is printed in 1–3 business days, then spends 5–12 business days in transit, tracked all the way. Delivery is free anywhere in the US. We are unable to deliver to PO boxes.

What if it arrives damaged?

Send us a photograph and we will remake it and send it again. There is nothing to return.

Can I return it?

Yes, within 30 days of delivery. Our returns policy has the details.

Printed to order

Graded against the original, then printed for you on cotton canvas or fine art paper in 1–3 business days.

The whole painting

Every mark is the artist’s own, and canvas edges are mirror-wrapped so the whole picture stays on the front.

Free US shipping

On every order, tracked, 5–12 business days in transit.

30-day returns

Returns and exchanges within 30 days of delivery.

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