1525–30 Probably born in Breda.
before 1550 Bruegel probably works in the studio of Pieter Coecke van Aelst in Antwerp.
1550 Moves to Mechelen where he enters the studio of Claude Dorizi and works on an altarpiece which is now lost.
1551 Admitted to the Guild of St Luke in Antwerp. Travels to Italy.
1552 Leaves Rome for Calabria and possibly visits Palermo.
1553 Returns to Rome.
1554 Leaves Italy for the Netherlands.
1555 12 prints by Bruegel known as the Large Landscapes are published by Hieronymus Cock in Antwerp.
1559 Paints Netherlandish Proverbs and Battle between Carnival and Lent.
1562 Paints Fall of the Rebel Angels and the Triumph of Death.
1563 Marries Mayken (Maria?) Coecke, the daughter of Pieter Coecke in Brussels.
1565 Completes The Seasons – six pictures commissioned for the house of Niclaes Jonghelinck in Antwerp. Five survive including The Harvesters.
1569 Dies in Brussels
1559 Netherlandish Proverbs, Berlin, Staatliche Museen
1559 The Battle Between Carnival and Lent, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum
1560 Children's Games, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum
1562 The Suicide of Saul, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum
1562 Dulle Griet (Mad Meg), Antwerp, Museum Mayer van den Bergh
1563 The Tower of Babel, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum
1563 Landscape with the Flight into Egypt, London, Courtauld Institute Galleries
1564 The Procession to Calvary, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum
1564 The Adoration of the Kings, London, National Gallery.
1565 The Hunters in the Snow, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum
1565 The Gloomy Day, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum
1565 The Harvesters, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art
1565 The Return of the Herd, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum
1566 The Census at Bethlehem, Brussels, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts
1566 The Wedding Dance, Detroit, Institute of Arts
1568-69 Peasant Wedding, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum
1568 The Blind Leading the Blind, Naples, Museo di Capodimonte,
1568 The Three Soldiers, New York, Frick Collection