Jan The Elder Brueghel

Jan Brueghel the Elder or Jan il Vecchio Bruegel (Jan the Elder Brueghel 1568 - 13 January 1625) was a Flemish painter, son of Pieter Bruegel the Elder and father of Jan Brueghel the Younger. Nicknamed "Velvet" Brueghel, "Flower" Brueghel, and "Paradise" Brueghel, of which the latter two were derived from his floral still lifes which were his favored subjects, while the former may refer to the velveteen sheen of his colors or to his habit of wearing velvet.

Jan was born in Brussels. His father died in 1569, and then, following the death of his mother in 1578, Jan, along with his brother Pieter Brueghel the Younger and sister Marie, went to live with their grandmother Mayken Verhulst (widow of Pieter Coecke van Aelst). She was an artist in her own right, and according to Carel van Mander, possibly the first teacher of the two sons. The family moved to Antwerp sometime after 1578.

Many of his paintings are collaborations in which figures by other painters were placed in landscapes painted by Jan Brueghel; in other cases, Brueghel painted the figures into another artist's landscape or architectural interior. The most famous of his collaborators was Peter Paul Rubens in several of his small pictures-such as his "Vertumnus and Pomona," the "Satyr viewing the Sleeping Nymph," and the "Terrestrial Paradise.".

He had a studio in Antwerp, where he died from cholera on 13 January 1625.