# The Hare Hunters

- By: Pieter Bruegel, the elder (Flemish, 1525/30-1569)
- Date: 1566
- Medium: Etching in black on ivory laid paper
- Classification: Print
- Dimensions: Image: 21.5 × 29.2 cm (8 1/2 × 11 1/2 in.); Sheet: 24.6 × 31.8 cm (9 11/16 × 12 9/16 in.)
- Culture: Netherlands
- Credit line: Clarence Buckingham Collection
- Museum: [Art Institute of Chicago](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/25374)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/web/6a7bda9adf7eb99d17aa1531f1f6d817.jpg
- Who can see it: Teens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

This etching might represent two related proverbs popularized by the philosopher/writer Erasmus in the mid-1500s: “He who chases two hares catches neither” and “A hare yourself, you hunt for prey.” In compositional terms, the proverb served Pieter Bruegel the Elder as more of a pretext for the sweeping landscape scene that occupies most of the printed field.

Bruegel’s inf luence on the early development of the landscape genre cannot be overestimated. He created important landscape drawings, but his impact spread even more forcefully through the medium of printmaking. This is the only etching he is believed to have executed himself.

Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0