Salman Toor | Frick Diptych Series: Bruegel’s Three Soldiers

Bruegel’s Three Soldiers, a new publication by Anna–Claire Stinebring and Salman Toor from The Frick Diptych series is available for purchase now.⁠

Designed to foster critical engagement and to interest specialists and non-specialists alike, each book published in the Frick Diptych series illuminates a single work in the museum’s rich collection with an essay by a current or recent Frick curator, paired with a contribution from a contemporary artist, writer, or cultural figure. ⁠

The Frick’s Three Soldiers is one of only three signed works in the United States by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, one of the great Netherlandish painters of the sixteenth century. Once in the collection of Charles I of England, the small panel in grisaille represents a trio of Landsknechte, mercenary foot soldiers whose flamboyant costumes and poses were a popular subject for printmakers of the period. An essay by Anna-Claire Stinebring—Curator of European Painting at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and former Anne L. Poulet Curatorial Fellow at the Frick—examines the artistic and political environment of the time and the ways in which a colorful subject is transformed by its translation into monochrome. Stinebring’s text is paired with a contribution by Toor, who was a participant in the Frick’s celebrated installation series Living Histories: Queer Views and Old Masters.