The Four Seasons: Summer

By the mid-16th century printmaking and printselling were big business in Europe. One of the most important firms, in Antwerp, was Hieronymus Cock's Aux quartre Vents (at the Sign of the Four Winds), so named because its goal was to disseminate prints to all four corners of the earth. Breugel collaborated with Cock by supplying drawings that were transformed into prints by professional engravers. In 1565 Bruegel executed a group of paintings of the months of the year based on the tradition of late medieval calendar illumination in which the labors of peasants mark the passage of the seasons. He then produced drawings of Spring and Summer to be engraved by the skillful Pieter van der Heyden. The set was completed with Autumn and Winter after drawings by Hans Bol.