Born to a family of extraordinary painters, he was the son of Pieter Brueghel the Elder and the brother of Jan Brueghel de Velours. Both he and Jan were trained by their father, and learned watercolor painting from their grandmother, Mayken Verhulst. Pieter also studied with landscape painter Gillis van Coninxloo and became a master in 1588. Perhaps the most outstanding of his numerous apprentices, Frans Snyders, appeared in 1593. Along with his brother, Pieter founded a large workshop specialized in replicas of their father’s paintings, which were in great demand in Flemish cities. There they made innumerable copies of works such as Winter Landscape with Skaters and The Bird Trap, of which The Museo del Prado has one version (P2045), as well as The Census at Bethlehem, The Slaughter of the Innocents, Saint John the Baptist Preaching, Parabola of the Blind and the Adoration of the Magi, of which the Museo del Prado also has a version. While those copies were based on original drawings and models, Pieter Brueghel the Younger occasionally added or eliminated figures and details, even combining different parts of several paintings to make eclectic compositions. In his final period, around 1619, he freed himself from his father’s model and generated works in which the figures are more freely distributed. These last works are related to those of other Dutch followers of Brughel’s country scenes, such as David Vickboons and Roeland Savery.
The paintings by Pieter Brueghel the Younger at the Museo del Prado are mostly from the Royal Collection, as the Spanish monarchs had been especially fond of works by that family since the 17th century. Others, however, were acquired by Charles IV, including Garland with the Adoration of the Kings. And in the 20th century, the Museum made new acquisitions. In 1930, for example, it purchased a version of the Adoration of the Magi, and in 1941, a Winter Landscape. Among other outstanding works at the Museo del Prado are David’s Triumph over Goliath, which Pieter Brueghel painted in collaboration with Adriaen van Stalbent around 1618-1619, and a version of the famous Tower of Babel from the end of the 16th century (Pérez Preciado, J. J. in: E.M.N.P., Madrid, 2006, vol. II, p. 568).