Pieter Brueghel II was the first of Pieter Brueghel the Elder's two sons, both of whom became artists. Born in 1564 in Brussels, he was trained by the widow of Peter Cocke van Aelst who had taught his father, and later by Gillis van Coninxloo. He was admitted to the Brussels St Luke's Guild in 1584/5 and then settled in Antwerp where he died in 1637/8. He taught the animal painter Frans Snyders and the genre painter Gonzales Coques.
Pieter Brueghel the Younger is particularly famous for his detailed scenes of peasant life, landscapes and religious subjects. His works are noted for their large number of figures, usually peasants; this is especially evident in his marriage and fair scenes, which give a realistic interpretation of contemporary Flemish festivals.
Pieter Brueghel the Younger was a true inheritor of his father's name and reputation, as were his nephews Jan Brueghel the Younger (1601-1678) and Ambrosius Brueghel (1617-1675). Many of his compositions are copies of lost works by his father and are therefore important as records of Pieter I's paintings.
The work of Pieter Brueghel the Younger is represented in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.