How many proverbs are in Netherlandish Proverbs?

Scholars have identified roughly 120, some of them doubled up in a single figure. Many are still used in Dutch, and a few, like 'banging your head against a wall', exist in English.

Where is the painting?

In the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, part of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, which acquired it in 1914.

What is the blue cloak in the painting?

A woman draping a blue cloak over her husband, which meant deceiving him, near the centre of the picture. The painting is sometimes named after it.

Which size shows the detail best?

The 16 by 24 inch print makes the individual scenes readable; at A4 size the painting reads as a whole but the smaller figures are tiny.

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Painting · Pieter Bruegel the Elder · 1559

Bruegel, Netherlandish Proverbs (1559)

Netherlandish Proverbs is Pieter Bruegel the Elder's oil-on-panel painting of 1559 in which more than a hundred figures act out Dutch proverbs and idioms literally, held by the Gemäldegalerie of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Bruegel died in 1569 and the painting is in the public domain.

Bruegel's Netherlandish Proverbs: a crowded village scene in which over a hundred figures act out Dutch proverbs — Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1559. Source: Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

History

Collections of proverbs were popular reading in the 16th-century Netherlands, and Bruegel had already engraved a few of them as single scenes. In this painting, signed and dated 1559, he set roughly 120 of them in one village: a man bangs his head against a brick wall, another fills in the well after the calf has drowned, a woman hangs a blue cloak on her husband (deceives him), two dogs quarrel over a bone, and a man tries to open his mouth wider than an oven.

The picture is also called The Blue Cloak and The Topsy-Turvy World, since the world turned upside down (the globe hanging inverted on the house front) is one of its subjects. It is one of the artist's earliest large panels and was acquired by the Berlin museums in 1914. Guides identifying every proverb have been published since the 19th century.

What the print shows

A village by a river seen from slightly above, crowded with figures in red, blue and brown, each group a separate proverb, from the roof tiled with tarts at the left to the ship sailing into the far distance at the right. The scene is dense enough that the larger sizes reward close reading. The original is 117 by 163 cm; the print keeps the landscape proportion and is offered up to 16 by 24 inches.

Source and licence

Source: Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

Licence: Public domain. The painter died in 1569; a faithful photograph of a public-domain painting carries no new copyright, so the image can be reproduced freely.

Oil on oak panel, 117 by 163 cm.

Available sizes and prices

Print: paper or framed Etsy listing 4570330341

Size	Paper	Framed
8 × 12 in (21 × 30 cm)	$29.99	$98.99
12 × 18 in (30 × 45 cm)	$44.99	$137.99
16 × 24 in (40 × 60 cm)	$54.99	$195.99

Printed to order, shipped in 2–5 business days, free US shipping. Paper: matte fine-art paper. Framed: real wood (black, white, wood, dark wood), shatterproof acrylic, ready to hang.

Buy

Pieter Bruegel Netherlandish Proverbs 1559 (print: paper or framed): buy on Etsy, from $29.99.

Frequently asked questions

How many proverbs are in Netherlandish Proverbs?: Scholars have identified roughly 120, some of them doubled up in a single figure. Many are still used in Dutch, and a few, like 'banging your head against a wall', exist in English.
Where is the painting?: In the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, part of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, which acquired it in 1914.
What is the blue cloak in the painting?: A woman draping a blue cloak over her husband, which meant deceiving him, near the centre of the picture. The painting is sometimes named after it.
Which size shows the detail best?: The 16 by 24 inch print makes the individual scenes readable; at A4 size the painting reads as a whole but the smaller figures are tiny.

Sources

Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Published 20 Oct 2026; prices are the live Etsy prices as of 20 Oct 2026. The work is public domain; this page's text is © ThinkDotCo and may be quoted with a link.