BRUSSELS, FIRST HALF 18TH CENTRURY, AFTER DAVID TENIERS THE YOUNGER

Very few of the large number of tapestry designs that are known as Teniers can actually be traced back to works by David Teniers the Younger (d. 1690) who was court painter to Archduke Leopold Wilhelm. Records of the period indicate that it was painters such as Jacob van Helmont, Ignatius de Hondt, Theobald Michau and Jan van Orley that prepared the cartoons based on Teniers' themes.

The first mention of these genre tapestries is in 1693 when Jacob van der Borght and Jerôme le Clerc supplied a set to Prince Rupert of Bavaria. They rapidly became one of the most preferred subjects in tapestry design and were woven in nearly all of the main workshops of Brussels, Lille, Audenarde and also in Beauvais, London and Madrid until the mid-18th Century. Most workshops had their own designs commissioned from various painters; it is thus possible to ascribe certain figural compositions to specific workshops. This particular subject seems to have been woven by various contemporary weavers, including Jasper van der Borght (d. 1742) (H.C. Marillier, Handbook of the Teniers Tapestries, London, 1932, p. 58, plate 14) and Daniel III Leyniers (d. 1770) (H. Göbel, Tapestries of the Lowlands, New York, 1924, fig. 299).(G. Delmarcel, Flemish Tapestry, Tielt, 1999, pp. 352-363).

Another panel with identical borders and attributed to Peter (d. 1763) and Jan Frans (d. 1774) van der Borght by H.C. Marillier in his Handbook of the Teniers Tapestries, London, 1932, p. 54, plate 35A, was sold anonymously, Christie's, New York, 20 April 2010, lot 219.