The Four Seasons: Summer (1570): Art, History and Details

The Four Seasons: Summer (1570) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Pieter van der Heyden (Netherlandish, c. 1530–after 1572); Pieter Bruegel (Netherlandish, c. 1525/30–1569).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

By the mid-16th century printmaking and printselling were big business in Europe. One of the most important firms, in Antwerp, was Hieronymus Cock's Aux quartre Vents (at the Sign of the Four Winds), so named because its goal was to disseminate prints to all four corners of the earth. Breugel collaborated with Cock by supplying drawings that were transformed into prints by professional engravers. In 1565 Bruegel executed a group of paintings of the months of the year based on the tradition of late medieval calendar illumination in which the labors of peasants mark the passage of the seasons. He then produced drawings of Spring and Summer to be engraved by the skillful Pieter van der Heyden. The set was completed with Autumn and Winter after drawings by Hans Bol.

Object facts

• Title: The Four Seasons: Summer
• Date: 1570
• Creator attribution: Pieter van der Heyden (Netherlandish, c. 1530–after 1572); Pieter Bruegel (Netherlandish, c. 1525/30–1569)
• Culture: Netherlands, 16th century
• Type: Print
• Technique: engraving
• Collection: PR - Engraving
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1995.16

Collection credit

The Charlotte Ekker and Charlotte Van der Veer Memorial Fund

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.