The tax-collector's office

Pieter Brueghel II
Flanders
1564/65 – 1637/38

The tax-collector's office
c 1615
oil on wood panel
Currently on display, Gallery 11
Place made
Antwerp, Flanders (Belgium)
Medium
oil on wood panel
Dimensions
74.5 x 106.5 cm
Credit line
Bequest of Helen Austin Horn 1934
Accession number
0.814
Signature and date
Unrecorded.
Provenance
Helen Austin Horn (1878-1934), Adelaide before 1934, by whom bequeathed to AGSA.
Media category
Painting
Collection area
European paintings

  • WALL LABEL: The tax-collector's office, c.1615

    Known by many different names, including The village lawyer, Payment of the tithe and the Lawyer of bad cases, several versions of this work were painted by Brueghel and his workshop in the early seventeenth century. Reminiscent of the complex and layered prints of the iconic Northern Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer, this busy everyday scene offers a unique insight into the lives of ordinary Flemish people. The artist has brought all of the characters to life and each appears to have their own story to tell: an elderly man, who looks to be paying his taxes with the dead bird slung over his shoulder, and a woman with a selection of fresh produce.

    When another version of this painting came to light in 2023, it was suggested that the artist was in fact making a bold political statement about the Spanish occupation of Flanders, discernable in large part by the Hapsburg-like chin of the central tax collector or lawyer.


    Tansy Curtin, Curator of International Art Pre-1980



  • Sotheby's Auction: Old Master Paintings, London, 1987.

  • Reimagining the Renaissance

    Art Gallery of South Australia, 20 July 2024 – 13 April 2025
  • [Book] Natalie Zemon Davis. The Gift in Sixteenth Century France.
  • [Journal] National Gallery of South Australia Bulletin.
  • [Catalogue] Tomory, Peter, and Robert Gaston. 1989. European paintings before 1800 in Australian and New Zealand public collections : summary catalogue. Sydney: Beagle Press.
  • [Book] Montes, Santiago. El Arte de Mediar (The Art of Mediating).
    Complimentary copy to come.
  • [Book] Rueda, David, Stegmueller, Daniel. Who want what? Redistribution preferences in comparative perspective.
    Complimentary copy to come.
  • [Book] Tripp, Andrew, Smith, Charlie. Progressive Studio Pedegogy. 133.
    Complimentray copy to come.