Brueghel family


The Brueghel family, also spelled Bruegel or Breughel, is an extended family of Flemish painters which played a major role in the development of the art in 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.
Pieter Bruegel the Elder used that spelling, but all later members of the family used Brueghel.

Family tree

The image above shows the main branch of the family. The complete list of all painters related to this family is longer though. In the below tree only the main family members have been included, not those brothers and sisters who didn't work as an artist or married a known artist.

Jan Mertens the Elder, sculptor, about whom very little is known
+→ Jan Mertens the Younger, painter, who may be the same as Jan van Dornicke and/or the Master of 1518
¦ +→ Anna van Dornicke
¦ x Pieter Coecke van Aelst, painter: two of his sons, Pieter II and Pauwel, were also painters
¦ x Mayken Verhulst, painter of miniatures, from a family of painters, and second wife of Pieter Coecke
¦ ¦ +→ Maria or Mayken Coecke
¦ ¦ x Pieter Bruegel the Elder, marriage in 1563, to his master's daughter.
¦ ¦ ¦ +→ Pieter Brueghel the Younger
¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ +→ Pieter Brueghel III
¦ ¦ ¦ +→ Jan Brueghel the Elder
¦ ¦ ¦ x Isabelle de Jode, daughter of engraver Gerard de Jode and brother to cartographer Cornelis de Jode and engraver Pieter de Jode I
¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ +→ Jan Brueghel the Younger : his godfather was Peter Paul Rubens
¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ x Anna-Maria Janssens, daughter of painter Abraham Janssens and siser of painter Abraham Janssens II
¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ +→ Jan Pieter Brueghel
¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ +→ Abraham Brueghel, who spent most of his career in Italy
¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ +→ Philips Brueghel, only a few paintings by him are known
¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ +→ Ferdinand Brueghel
¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ +→ Jan Baptist Brueghel, flower painter who spent most of his career in Italy
¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ +→ Paschasia Brueghel
¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ x Hieronymus van Kessel the Younger, painter, son of the painter Hieronymus van Kessel the Elder
¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ +→ Jan van Kessel the Elder
¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ x Maria van Apshoven
¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ +→ Ferdinand van Kessel
¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ +→ Jan van Kessel the Younger, painter active in Spain
¦ ¦ ¦ x Catharina van Mariënburg
¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ +→ Anna Brueghel
¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ x David Teniers the Younger, married in 1637: see the Teniers family tree below
¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ +→ Catharina Brueghel
¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ x Jan Baptist Borrekens, married in 1636
¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ +→ Ambrosius Brueghel

The Teniers family joined the Brueghel family when David Teniers the Younger married Anna Brueghel, granddaughter of Pieter Bruegel the Elder and daughter of Jan Brueghel the Elder, in 1637.

Juliaen Teniers Joachimszone x Joanna van Maelbeke
+→ Juliaen Teniers the Elder
x Suzanna Coignet, sister of painter Gillis II Coignet, son of Gillis I Coignet and father of painters Jacob and Gillis III
+→ David Teniers the Elder
x Dymphna Cornelis de Wilde
¦ +→ David Teniers the Younger
¦ x Anna Brueghel, marriage in 1637
¦ ¦ +→ David Teniers III
¦ ¦ x Ana María Bonnaerens, marriage in 1671
¦ ¦ ¦ +→ David Teniers IV, painter of whom very little is known
¦ ¦ +→ Cornelia Teniers
¦ ¦ x Jan-Erasmus Quellinus, painter, last notable member of the large Quellinus family of sculptors and painters, the son of Erasmus Quellinus II and a grandson of Erasmus Quellinus I
¦ +→ Juliaen Teniers the Younger
¦ +→ Theodoor Teniers
¦ +→ Abraham Teniers