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Lot Essay
David Teniers II was the son of the Antwerp history painter David Teniers I, with whom he was also apprenticed. The younger Teniers became a master in the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke in 1632-3 and was one of the most prolific painters in the Lowlands in the seventeenth century, owing in part to his strong relationships with Antwerp art dealers. Though he painted landscapes, small-scale religious scenes, portraits and still lifes, in his own time, much like today, he was chiefly known for his genre paintings. On account of his artistic success, in 1647 Teniers came into the employ of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in Brussels, Governor of the Spanish Netherlands, and in 1651 was named court painter to the Archduke. Teniers’ paintings were particularly prized in courtly circles, not simply in Brussels, but also at those of King Philip IV of Spain, the Dutch Stadholder William II in The Hague and that of Queen Christina in Sweden.
Fred Meijer has recently proposed a date of circa 1650, around the time Teniers was made court painter to the Archduke, for this well-preserved little panel (private communication, 22 November 2022). Unlike a large number of Teniers’ compositions, which depict individuals of lower social status, here the man is identified as a man of means and learning through his fur-lined coat, spectacles and apparent literacy. Teniers regularly turned his brush to allegorical depictions of the Four Elements, times of day, Four Seasons and Five Senses in single paintings or series (see, for example, the ‘Palace Kitchen’: Allegory of the Four Elements [The State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, inv. no. 586]; the Fishing in the Castle Pond (Morning); Three Peasants in Conversation (Afternoon) [Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp, inv. nos. 346 and 347]; Cycle of the Four Seasons [Dienst voor verspreide Kunstonderwerpen, The Hague, inv. nos. NK2413-2416] and the Allegory of the Five Senses [Koninklijke Musea voor Schoone Kunsten, Brussels, inv. no. 1257]). Given the overt allusions to sight here, it is tempting to suggest that this painting may once have formed part of a series of the Five Senses. Indeed, John Smith documented a series on copper of similar scale (8 x 5 in.) in the collection of Count Dubarry in 1774 which included a 'dealer in spectacles' for Sight (see J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters, London, 1831, III, p. 273, under no. 47), while another small painting on copper datable to circa 1640 depicting an old man in spectacles looking at a young man writing was bequeathed as part of an intact series by Lord Samuel to the Guildhall Art Gallery in 1987 (inv. no. 3766).
We are grateful to Fred Meijer for endorsing the attribution on the basis of photographs.
Fred Meijer has recently proposed a date of circa 1650, around the time Teniers was made court painter to the Archduke, for this well-preserved little panel (private communication, 22 November 2022). Unlike a large number of Teniers’ compositions, which depict individuals of lower social status, here the man is identified as a man of means and learning through his fur-lined coat, spectacles and apparent literacy. Teniers regularly turned his brush to allegorical depictions of the Four Elements, times of day, Four Seasons and Five Senses in single paintings or series (see, for example, the ‘Palace Kitchen’: Allegory of the Four Elements [The State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, inv. no. 586]; the Fishing in the Castle Pond (Morning); Three Peasants in Conversation (Afternoon) [Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp, inv. nos. 346 and 347]; Cycle of the Four Seasons [Dienst voor verspreide Kunstonderwerpen, The Hague, inv. nos. NK2413-2416] and the Allegory of the Five Senses [Koninklijke Musea voor Schoone Kunsten, Brussels, inv. no. 1257]). Given the overt allusions to sight here, it is tempting to suggest that this painting may once have formed part of a series of the Five Senses. Indeed, John Smith documented a series on copper of similar scale (8 x 5 in.) in the collection of Count Dubarry in 1774 which included a 'dealer in spectacles' for Sight (see J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters, London, 1831, III, p. 273, under no. 47), while another small painting on copper datable to circa 1640 depicting an old man in spectacles looking at a young man writing was bequeathed as part of an intact series by Lord Samuel to the Guildhall Art Gallery in 1987 (inv. no. 3766).
We are grateful to Fred Meijer for endorsing the attribution on the basis of photographs.