The Large Landscapes: Solicitudo Rustica (c. 1555–58): Art, History and Details

The Large Landscapes: Solicitudo Rustica (c. 1555–58) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Jan van Doetechum (Flemish, 1530–1616); Lucas van Doetechum (Flemish); Pieter Bruegel (Netherlandish, c. 1525/30–1569).

The work and its context

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

In the Netherlands, Pieter Bruegel’s designs for a series of large landscape prints may have relied on sketches (now lost) he made passing through the Alps in the early 1550s. This view is more a compendium of various visual characteristics of the Alps, rather than a specific place. The elevated point of view and massive, powerful cliffs and crags in the distance give way to a river valley and flat plains akin to Bruegel’s Low Countries homeland. The figures include peasants whose mundane activities reinforce the landscape as a container for “rustic cares” (solicitudo rustica).

Object facts

• Title: The Large Landscapes: Solicitudo Rustica
• Date: c. 1555–58
• Creator attribution: Jan van Doetechum (Flemish, 1530–1616); Lucas van Doetechum (Flemish); Pieter Bruegel (Netherlandish, c. 1525/30–1569)
• Culture: Flanders
• Type: Print
• Technique: engraving and etching
• Dimensions: Image: 31.5 x 43 cm (12 3/8 x 16 15/16 in.); Sheet: 31.5 x 43 cm (12 3/8 x 16 15/16 in.)
• Collection: PR - Engraving
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1980.104

A detail from the museum

The letters "inue" next to the artist's name, "brueghel," represented the word "inventit," Latin for "has designed it."

Collection credit

Mr. and Mrs. Charles G. Prasse Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, Sherman E. “The Year in Review for 1980.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 68, no. 6 (June 1981): 163–219.
• Talbot, William S. “Visions of Landscape: East and West.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 70, no. 3 (March 1983): 112–135.

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.