Peasant Fashion in the Low Countries: Stage 2; Frans Boels

Frans Boels, B. 1555 - 1596, most of his paintings are of the landscape variety, often with Biblical scenes.  He was trained by Hans Bol, his stepfather.  As such, only a handful are of use for this project.  However, as the paintings are accurately dated for the most part, they are particularly useful as they likely show /current/ fashion in the peasant class for the 1590s, unlike the more romanticized versions by the Brueghels for instance. 

Peasant Fashion in the Low Countries: Stage 2; Frans Verbeeck

Aaah, Frans Verbeeck, born 1510 and died 1570.  Or at least his studio/family, since we don't know in most cases as to which Frans Verbeeck, and it wasn't uncommon for their paintings to be unsigned.  Their style is...unique, although likely inspired by Heironymus Bosch, and have similar forms of exaggeration and satire.  Even so, not all of it is useless for this survey.  I am not a fan of the artistic style, tbh.

Peasant Fashion in the Low Countries: Stage 2. Joachim Beuckelaer

Next up is Joachim Beuckelaer, born 1533, d. 1574, and most active through the 1560s.  His artwork focuses on markets; meat, poultry, fish, and veggies, and this can show an insight into some of the tools of those various trades as well as different foodstuffs in Antwerp.  He was a nephew of and possibly learned to paint from Pieter Aiertsen, who was the first artist on my list; I think you can definitely see some stylistic similarities between the two.

Peasant Fashion in the Low Countries: Stage 2; Pieter Bruegel the YOUNGER

 Pieter Bruegel the Younger was born 1564 in Brussels as the oldest son of Brueghel the Elder.  Despite being the son of a famous painter and copying his fathers work, he was not directly trained by him, as Brueghel Elder died when Younger was only 4-5 years old.

The usefulness of his work for this survey varies, like that of most artists; much of his opus is out of period and shows it, others are direct copies of his father's work and was covered when I analyzed Elder's paintings (others of these are survived where Elder's original did not), and, of course, others are allegorical and just too funky for inclusion.  Additionally, he produced /many/ copies from his shop, some of which are referred to as different names--several times I managed to dig up a painting I thought was new only to find I had already covered it.  Often, they are undated and I have to guesstimate the period they're showing--when I go and finally get to do posts regarding individual garments, I will attempt to chart a timeline of style development. 

I decided this time to include my additional commentary from the Facebook posts I have been making daily; while there isn't much focused interest in those and I don't discuss them much, I figure it could help people searching for examples of random items in these paintings.

Peasant Fashion in the Low Countries: Part Two. Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Pieter Bruegel the Elder.  One of the first artists who come to mind when you think of this genre of painting, and the one this project was named for.  He was born between 1525 and 1530 near Breda and died in 1569, after living primarily in Antwerp then Brussels.  His early work is mostly in engraving and drawings, with the majority of his well known paintings came after 1555.

• Parable of the Sower.  1557.  https://www.wikiart.org/en/pieter-bruegel-the-elder/parable-of-the-sower-1557 
• Only guy
• Hat is black and mostly shapeless, although there does appear to be some kind of brim.
• Outer garment is grey and only hip length.  Sleeves are rather poofy, with a separate closer fitting pieces at the forearm.  In the left (as worn) sleeve, you can see a slit.  The garment may be lined in red, and may have a crossover front.  
• Doublet, not really visible, except as more grey.
• Hosen are of the knee length breeches style in a lighter shade of grey.   No details are visible as to whether there is a codpiece or not.
• Netherstocks are a grey inbetween the breeches and jerkin in colour.  You can see slight bagging at the ankle.
• Shoes are low, and slip on, but do enclose the foot completely.  Leather is black.
• He is clean shaven, and short haired...and appears to be black.  There may be sideburns going on, but I am not sure.

Peasant Fashion in the Low Countries: Stage Two. Hieronymus Bosch

Yes, that Hieronymus Bosch.  Most of his work is not of any kind of use for this project, but two paintings are noted down as not being suspect, one noted as a "maybe", and three which are suspect, but may still be of use.  So, thankfully, this should be a relatively short post.

Bosch was born 1450 and died 1516....rather earlier than most of the works in this survey.  He grew up and lived in the s-Hertogenbosch, in the Dutchy of Brabant (Southern Netherlands).  He moved to Oirschot around 1480--the region a bit south of his birthtown, by about 11 minutes (Latitude).

 Because of Bosch's allegorical style of paint, and his active dates, the majority of his works are outside the subject of this survey, so I will only be covering a few.  Again, I am covering only the clothing of male and peasant class.

Peasant Fashion in the Low Countries: Stage Two. Pieter Aertsen

As you may have guessed, this project ended up being significantly more massive than anticipated.  This is the start of Stage 2 of my notes for you to springboard off of if needed; just make sure to give credit and a link back to here.  I had originally planned to publish all of the Stage 2 notes--describing the clothing of each guy in the paintings, but then realized that that post would be massive, since this 13 pages without images, and is only the first of the artists (although one of the more prolific ones).  As a reminder--since I have had someone try to tempt me into scope creep into foods and maybe women's clothing as well--I am only focusing on the men and menswear for this project, since there is a fair amount on women's clothing out there already.

For the most part, I am listing the clothing articles from top to bottom, outside to inside, or at least do so towards the end.  The paintings are presented in chronological order when the date is known, in order to show any developments in fashion during the time he lived in whatever town.  For the most parts, I do not give my theories as to what the garments are made of, but given that we are dealing with lower class, various wools are most likely, with linen for the shirts.

I do not plan to put up copies of every one of the paintings, which, I need to note for copyright, do not belong to me and are public domain.  Image source is linked with the title of the painting.

One (partial) step closer to the end goal!

Pieter Aertsen 1508-1575.  Born in Amsterdam (Netherlands), moved to and lived in Antwerp (Northern Belgium) from around 1540-1555, when he moved back to Amsterdam.  Presumably, the subjects in his paintings were local to him.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_Aertsen

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Peasant Fashion in the Low Countries: Stage One

Some time ago--in response to having been recently working on a garment which was for high court--I decided I wanted to play with Low Countries clothing.  Specifically, peasant clothing.  Fashion A La Brueghel, as I immediately dubbed it.  Historical Dutch beer may have also been involved in this decision, because who doesn't design an outfit to match a beer they might be drinking?

That is where I ran into a snag.  While there are several excellent articles out there on /women's/ Low Countries clothing, the selection of articles covering the details for menswear was decidedly lacking.  So, naturally, I decided I needed to do a bunch of research and write my own articles on the topic.  I fairly quickly decided on the plan of going through the artwork of Brueghel and other Flemish artists of the period, and winnowing out any pieces which did not have usable details; so marking down any paintings which had the distinctive clothing of the correct class (i.e. Not Nobility), and which weren't purely allegorical and religious in tone since the clothing of those is often suspect.