'Pissing at the Moon'

This is one of the rarest and most iconic of all the images produced by Pieter Brueghel the Younger to illustrate one of the Flemish proverbs. It derives from the popular saying 'Wat ick verloghe, en geraecke daer niet aen ick pisse altyt tegen de maen' ('Whatever I try to do, I never succeed, I am always pissing at the moon'), thus expressing the ultimate futility of human endeavour. Only one other version exists (Schönborn collection) which forms part of a set of nine circular pictures all based on the proverbs. Both works may derive from a lost prototype by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, of which there is a copy in the Museum Mayer van den Bergh in Antwerp.