# Guards in a Forest Clearing [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [BRUEGHEL, Jan the Elder]() - Date: 1551-1600 - Technique: Oil on oak, 33 x 42 cm ## Commentary In a clearing among the trees is a group of men in contemporary dress, armed with lances and muskets. Three have horses, and one rider has dismounted to urinate. The others chat together, one leaning on a tree-trunk, one on a musket. Behind them in the background two figures sit peacefully under a tree, while a couple of peasants walk across the clearing with a goat. Here we see the use as 'background' of figures which the artist has already painted elsewhere, a practice typical of Brueghel. They enliven a landscape which seems to recede continuously into the distance, without any distinct breaks between foreground and background, leading the eye all the way to the distant church. ## Related artworks - [A Flemish Fair \(detail\)]() - [A Flemish Fair \(detail\)]() - [A Flemish Fair]() - [Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden]() - [Air \(Optics\)]() - [Allegory of Sight and Smell]() - [Bouquet in a Clay Vase]() - [Bouquet in a Clay Vase]() - [Bouquet of Flowers \(detail\)]() - [Bouquet of Flowers]() - [Bouquet of Flowers]() - [Bouquet of Flowers]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()