Ferdinand de Braekeleer, sometimes spelled as Ferdinand de Braeckeleer, was a Flemish painter and printmaker. He is known for his paintings of genre scenes, church interiors, historic events, religious scenes, cityscapes, market scenes and market still lifes. He is called 'the Elder' to distinguish him from his son with the same name, who was also a painter.

Genre painting, a form of genre art, depicts aspects of everyday life by portraying ordinary people engaged in common activities. One common definition of a genre scene is that it shows figures to whom no identity can be attached either individually or collectively, thus distinguishing it from history paintings and portraits. A work would often be considered as a genre work even if it could be shown that the artist had used a known person—a member of his family, say—as a model. In this case it would depend on whether the work was likely to have been intended by the artist to be perceived as a portrait—sometimes a subjective question. The depictions can be realistic, imagined, or romanticized by the artist. Because of their familiar and frequently sentimental subject matter, genre paintings have often proven popular with the bourgeoisie, or middle class.