The Brueghel family, also spelled Bruegel or Breughel, is an extended family of Dutch and Flemish painters which played a major role in the development of the art in Brabant and Flanders throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. Due to the organisation in guilds and training being done with established painters and not in schools or academies, painters often passed on the knowledge from father to son, and there are many examples of Flemish painting families spanning two or more generations, e.g. the Francken family, which had at least ten painters spanning four generations. The Brueghel family produced the largest number of major painters of all Flemish families.
David Teniers the Younger, The Painter and His Family, c. 1645, now in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin
Pieter Bruegel the Elder was among the most significant artists of Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting, a painter and printmaker, known for his landscapes and peasant scenes ; he was a pioneer in presenting both types of subject as large paintings.
The Painter and The Connoisseur, c. 1565, possibly Bruegel's self-portrait
Engraving designed by Bruegel and published by Hieronymus Cock, The Seven Deadly Sins or the Seven Vices – Anger, 1558
The Blind Leading the Blind, 1568
The Big Fish Eat the Little Fish, Bruegel's drawing for a print, 1556