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Reinhard Behrens travels to the Northern Renaissance in his tin submarine to visit The Hunters in the Snow, a 1565 oil on wood painting by Pieter Bruegel (c.1525–1569).
The original painting which has been made popular as a Christmas card in the late 20th century depicts a winter’s scene in which three hunters return from an expedition accompanied by their dogs. It does not appear to have been a successful trip; the hunters trudge wearily, and the dogs appear downcast. It is a calm, cold, overcast day; the colours are muted, and wood smoke hangs in the air. Several adults and a child prepare food outside an inn and in the distance, figures can be seen ice skating and participating in winter games on a frozen river. The jagged mountain peaks in the distance are entirely fictional. Behrens has created his own entirely fictional Flemish excursion which he has edited to suit his own personal narrative of exploration and parallel worlds.
Reinhard Behrens was born in Germany 1951 and studied Drawing and Painting from 1971-78 at Hamburg College of Art. In 1979 he was awarded an academic exchange grant which allowed him to complete a Postgraduate Course in Drawing and Painting at Edinburgh College of Art. Between 1982 and 1986 Behrens worked as a part time lecturer at Edinburgh College of art, the Glasgow School of Art and Grays School of Art in Aberdeen.
Behrens’s practice inhabits a fictional world called Naboland, a mythical place of snow and ice. For over forty years, the artist has examined this world through the lens of a real history of discovery, with the artist adopting the role as explorer to create an archive of drawings, paintings, prints and installations which record the found objects and landscapes of Naboland. 2025 will mark the 50th anniversary of Naboland
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