In the manner of Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Netherlandish, c. 1525–1569
The Beginner Slope, 2026
Oil on oak panel
116 × 174 cm
Never painted.
Commissioned for the collection, 2026.
PAB 2026.1.4
The chairlift runs up the middle like a spine, and everything else is gravity. Skiers fall in every direction, a snowboarder sits in the middle of the run as if it were a sofa, and at the left the café terrace is fuller than the slope. In Bruegel's *Hunters in the Snow* the valley below is full of skaters doing much the same. Winter has always been mostly falling over in company.
The brief
A busy ski resort beginner slope from above, dozens of small figures falling, snowploughing, queuing for a chairlift, a snowboarder sitting in the middle of the run, a café terrace with hot chocolate. Sixteenth-century Flemish oil painting on panel, a high vantage point looking down over a sprawling crowded scene, dozens of small figures each absorbed in their own activity, earthy greens, ochres and brick reds against a pale winter or summer sky, meticulous detail across the whole picture with no single hero, gentle satire and warmth, matte surface with fine craquelure. Museum photograph of the panel painting, even diffuse gallery lighting, no frame, no text, no wall, no floor, cropped to the canvas edge.
Written to the house rules. The painter's name does not appear.
Take it home
The painting on this room's wall, at its own proportions, nothing written on it.
