BRUEGHEL, Jan the Elder
(b. ca. 1568, Brussel, d. 1625, Antwerpen)

The Garden of Eden with the Fall of Man

c. 1615
Oil on panel, 74 x 115 cm
Mauritshuis, The Hague

This painting is one of the collaborative works by Peter Paul and Jan Brueghel the Elder. Although Brueghel was responsible for the composition, Rubens started the painting. Very sketchily, in thin paint, he painted Adam and Eve, the tree, the horse and the serpent. Then Brueghel took on the plants and animals, which he painted with encyclopaedic precision in finishing paint.