Waldlandschaft

1596–1625 · Workplace

Antwerp

1603

Death of his first wife, Isabella de Jode

In the year their daughter Paschasia was born (Rubens was her godfather, as he had been for their eldest son Jan in 1601), Isabella died, leaving the painter with two young children; it has been speculated that her death was linked to the birth.

1604 · Workplace

Prague

summer 1604

Studies Emperor Rudolf II's collections in Prague

Brueghel spent the summer of 1604 in Prague at the court of Emperor Rudolf II, which attracted Northern Mannerists such as Bartholomeus Spranger and Hans von Aachen. The emperor's encyclopaedic collection of rarities and animals, and Dürer's animal pictures he saw there, spurred him to 'catalogue' nature in his paintings; he also made a painted copy of Dürer's watercolour The Madonna with a Multitude of Animals.

April 1605

Second marriage: Catharina van Mariënburg

Brueghel remarried, taking Catharina van Mariënburg as his wife; they had eight children, among them the future painter Ambrosius Brueghel.

1606

Court painter to the Archdukes Albert and Isabella

Brueghel was appointed court painter to the sovereigns of the Spanish Netherlands and spent periods in Brussels in 1606, 1609, 1610 and 1613. Thanks to the Archduchess he had access to the court greenhouses with their rarest plants, and he studied animals from life in the court menagerie.