David Teniers II (Antwerp 1610-1690 Brussels)

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Property of Grove City College, sold to benefit the restoration of the Pew Memorial Room in the J. Howard Pew Fine Arts Center and the renovation of the Henry Buhl Library

David Teniers II (Antwerp 1610-1690 Brussels)

A tavern interior with boors playing cards

Details

David Teniers II (Antwerp 1610-1690 Brussels)
A tavern interior with boors playing cards
signed 'D · TENIERS · F.' (lower left)
oil on panel
16 x 13 in. (40.5 x 32.9 cm.)

Provenance

Willem Lormier (1682-1758), The Hague; his sale (†), Francken, The Hague, 4-7 July 1763, where acquired for f 560 by
Sir James Lowther (1736-1802), 1st Earl of Lonsdale, Lowther Castle, Westmorland, and by inheritance to his third cousin
Sir William Lowther, 2nd Bt. and 2nd Viscount Lowther, later 1st Earl of Lonsdale (1757-1844), and by descent until at least 1879.
with John Levy Galleries, New York, by 1938.
Mr. and Mrs. J. Howard Pew, Ardmore, Pennsylvania, and by whom bequeathed to
Grove City College, Grove City, Pennsylvania.

Literature

G. Hoet, Catalogus of naamlyst van schilderyen, met derzelver pryzen, The Hague, 1770, III, p. 332, no. 227.
Ante, 1784, untitled list, as ‘Teniers. Cardplayers’.
[W. Baillie], A Catalogue of the Lowther Coll.n of Pictures, 1802, as ‘Teniers D.d An Interior with Figures playing at Cards, a Beautiful Specimen (on Pannel) engraved in Mezzotinto by WB’.
A Catalogue of Pictures at Lowther Castle, 1825, no. 14, as ‘Boors playing Cards Teniers’ and in the Study.
A Catalogue of the Pictures at Lowther Castle, 1829, no. 14*, as ‘Boors playing Cards. £50 D. Teniers’ and where said to have been purchased form the Lormier sale.
J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters, London, 1831, III, p. 418, no. 592.
G.F. Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain, London, 1854, III, p. 263.
Catalogue of Pictures, Statuary &c Lowther Castle, 1879, no. 84, ‘as Interior of Peasants Gambling, D. Teniers’ and in the Study.

Engraved

W. Baillie, 1771.

Sale room notice

Please note the full provenance and literature should read as follows:

Provenance:
Willem Lormier (1682-1758), The Hague; his sale (†), Francken, The Hague, 4-7 July 1763, where acquired for f 560 by
Sir James Lowther (1736-1802), 1st Earl of Lonsdale, Lowther Castle, Westmorland, and by inheritance to his third cousin
Sir William Lowther, 2nd Bt. and 2nd Viscount Lowther, later 1st Earl of Lonsdale (1757-1844), and by descent until at least 1879.
with John Levy Galleries, New York, by 1938.
Mr. and Mrs. J. Howard Pew, Ardmore, Pennsylvania, and by whom bequeathed to
Grove City College, Grove City, Pennsylvania.

Literature:
G. Hoet, Catalogus of naamlyst van schilderyen, met derzelver pryzen, The Hague, 1770, III, p. 332, no. 227.
Ante, 1784, untitled list, as ‘Teniers. Cardplayers’.
[W. Baillie], A Catalogue of the Lowther Coll.n of Pictures, 1802, as ‘Teniers D.d An Interior with Figures playing at Cards, a Beautiful Specimen (on Pannel) engraved in Mezzotinto by WB’.
A Catalogue of Pictures at Lowther Castle, 1825, no. 14, as ‘Boors playing Cards Teniers’ and in the Study.
A Catalogue of the Pictures at Lowther Castle, 1829, no. 14*, as ‘Boors playing Cards. £50 D. Teniers’ and where said to have been purchased form the Lormier sale.
J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters, London, 1831, III, p. 418, no. 592.
G.F. Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain, London, 1854, III, p. 263.
Catalogue of Pictures, Statuary &c Lowther Castle, 1879, no. 84, ‘as Interior of Peasants Gambling, D. Teniers’ and in the Study.

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Lot Essay

David Teniers II returned repeatedly to the subject of tavern interiors with card games, often with two figures seated at a small wooden table surrounded by smoking and drinking bystanders, throughout his prolific career. These paintings take up a theme that had been popularized by Adriaen Brouwer in the 1630s. As is typical of Teniers’ approach to this subject, the central narrative takes place in the shallow foreground space, with carefully drawn still life elements arranged along the bottom edge and subsidiary figures in the background. Among Teniers’ favored elements, as here, was the inclusion of the innkeeper seen departing through an open door in the painting’s background.
This painting once belonged to Sir James Lowther, 1st Earl of Lonsdale at Lowther Castle, as recorded in a mezzotint by Captain William Baillie executed in reverse and dated 1771 (fig. 1). The painting had evidently left Lowther Castle by the early 1830s, for John Smith (loc. cit.) only knew of it through Baillie’s print.

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