Hunters in the Snow is a classic oil painting from Pieter Bruegel and has become respected as one of the best from his whole career. This article looks into the qualities of Hunters in the Snow and places it into context within the overall life of Bruegel the Elder. The painting is actually also often referred to as Return of the Hunters as well and both titles refer to the key focus of the work, where Bruegel places several Hunters set across a beautiful winter background from a location somewhere in the Flemish countryside.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder and Younger had a common style of adding large numbers of characters onto highly detailed landscape scenes which would add interest right across the whole canvas and this ensured a great longevity to their paintings. This approach has also made the artist's works like Hunters in the Snow very popular as reproductions for the many Bruegel fans who still exist around the world. In most cases they choose framed giclee art prints which accurately recreate his original strokes well, but posters and stretched canvases are also very popular too.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder was highly motivated to create depictions of the poor within his paintings at a time when most artists preferred only to concentrate on the richer members of society who held enough power to perhaps further the artist's own career. Many painters in more recent years have also been driven to capture the poorest in their community and one good example was Van Gogh who produced The Potato Eaters as a direct method of underlining the struggles that many were going through at that time. There have also been many others following in this route which oozes integrity and a desire to make art that perhaps can have a positive effect on society as a whole.

We can conclude that Hunters in the Snow is an important painting within the career of Pieter Bruegel the Elder and has been accepted has his most impressive painting, with many being charmed by the winter landscape that the artist creates with exceptional amounts of detail right across it. There are several other very similar works to this, but have a darker mood or the background scenery is not quite as attention grabbing. Those interested in this painting are well advised to check out more of his works which all followed a similar style, as did those of his son, the Younger, whose career followed shortly after.