The Gloomy Day

The Gloomy Day
Artist	Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Year	1565
Type	Oil on wood
Dimensions	118 cm × 163 cm (46+1⁄2 in × 64+1⁄8 in)
Location	Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

The Gloomy Day (Dutch: De sombere dag) is an oil on wood painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder in 1565. The painting is one in a series of six works, five of which are still extant, that depict different times of the year. The painting is currently in the collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, located in Vienna, Austria.

The scene, also known as Early Spring, is set around February and March, portrayed by the bleak atmosphere and leafless trees. The paper crown around the boy's head and the eating of waffles are references to the Carnival time prior to Lent. The sky, the ships crashing against the shoreline, and the children preparing themselves in the foreground suggest that harsh weather is coming.

In this painting “The bold contrast of shadow and light, the knowing gradation between the planes, and the admirable harmony of yellows, tans and browns qualify this work as a masterpiece. It exudes an ardent melancholy, a strange quality, at once gentle and powerful, that touches and penetrates the viewer”.^[1]

Bruegel is famous for his paintings of scenery and nature. Most of his paintings of the countryside tell a story or have a moral message.^[2]

The surviving Months of the Year cycle are:

• 
  The Gloomy Day
• 
  The Harvesters
• 
  The Hay Harvest
• 
  The Hunters in the Snow
• 
  The Return of the Herd
• 
  Spring, 1565, original presumed lost

• List of paintings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Gloomy Day by Pieter Bruegel (I).

• "Kunsthistorisches Museum". khm.at. Vienna. Kunsthistorisches Museum. Retrieved April 11, 2022.
• "Image of the painting in extremely high resolution". insidebruegel.net. Vienna. Kunsthistorisches Museum. Retrieved April 11, 2022.

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