Take the example of the ‘case’ of Pieter Brueghel the Younger (1564 – 1638), descendant of a dynasty of painters that spans several generations.1 He is the son of a famous father, Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525 ? – 1569). e latter is married to Maria Coecke, daughter of his master in Antwerp, Pieter Coecke van Aelst. is points to the fact that the artist’s practice was a rather closed world throughout that period. e year-long apprenticeships often took place in very large studios where works were made on commission. e sons of the master who headed the studio continued the family business. Marriages between the master’s daughters and his students were nothing exceptional. Art, in many cases, is a family affair. In the sixteenth century this is just the way things are. One becomes painter from father to son, within the strict guidelines of the Guild of Saint Luke. Pieter Bruegel the Elder died much too young to have been able to complete the training of his sons, but at the Antwerpbased Guild of Saint Luke, they enjoy certain specific privileges as sons of a recog nised master. It makes it easier for them to become masters themselves. Pieter Bruegel the Elder lies at the heart of the artistic prestige that will reflect upon his descendants. His other son, Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568 – 1625) manages to translate this fame into social (read : pecuniary) success. e glory of his father also affects Pieter Brueghel the Younger, who eagerly takes advantage of these fortunate circumstances. He is published in the books of the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke – the Liggeren – in 1584 – 1585. On the whole, he makes a living by systematically copying his father’s works. His studio is a real factory where production equals reproduction.2 In this way, he makes more than fifty copies of Winterlandschap met vogelknip. His clientele is not the most affluent. e large quantities of works he brings onto the market, do allow, however, for a decent living. His father’s fame is a true blessing for him. ings are quite different for Lucien Pissarro (1863 – 1944), son of the great Camille Pissarro (1830 – 1903). Camille, child of parents who ran an ironmongery on the Antilles, is the founder of a dynasty which will continue painting from generation to generation, even up to the present day with Frédéric Boni-Pissarro (°1964). Camille’s five sons all become artists, but such a successful father is a handicap they try in vain to overcome. Ludovic Rodo disappointedly gives up and concentrates on archiving his father’s oeuvre. Georges solves the problem by adopting the name Manzana and switching to furniture design. Lucien is taught how to paint by his father and courageously carries on. Camille does everything to promote, recommend, and sell his son’s work, but it proves impossible to compete with the monument that is his father. By the time Lucien starts his career, Camille Pissarro’s years of struggle have yielded results. As far as history is concerned, he can definitively be considered one of the pioneering artists of the nineteenth century. How is one to establish oneself as an innovator in the shadow of an original figure of this stature ? Lucien will never truly succeed, despite his talent and perseverance. He creates beautiful, post-impressionistic 1. See the exhibition catalogue Bruegel: een dynastie van schilders, Brussels, Centre for Fine Arts, 1980. Especially the article by Jacqueline Folie, ‘Pieter Brueghel de Jonge’, p. 137-164. 2. is led Peter van den Brink to label the studio of Pieter II as the ‘company Brueghel’. Peter van den Brink, De firma Brueghel, Gent, Ludion, 2001. e exhibition under the same title took place at the Bonnefantenmuseum in Maastricht in 2001 and in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels in 2002.
e ‘Artist Family’ phenomenon
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