A village landscape with peasants outside a cottage and a traveller on a path

Details

David Teniers II (Antwerp 1610-1690 Brussels)
A village landscape with peasants outside a cottage and a traveller on a path
signed with monogram 'DT F' (lower left)
oil on panel, with the panel maker's mark of Guilliam Gabron (active Antwerp 1609-1662)
7 x 10 7/8 in. (17.8 x 27.6 cm.) including additions of 1 cm. to the upper and lower edges

Provenance

Etienne-François, duc de Choiseul (1719-1785); sale, Paris, 6 April 1772, lot 39 (sold for 800 livres to the following)
Louis François de Bourbon, prince de Conti (1717-1776); (+) sale, Paris, 8 April 1777, lot 300 (sold for 901 livres to the following)
Destouches; sale, Paris, 21 March 1794, lot 80.
John Trumbull, Esq. (1756-1843); Christie's, London, 17 February 1797, lot 22.
Pierre Grand-Pré; sale, Paris, 16 February 1809, lot 73.
Lord Farnborough.
Colonel Long, Bromley Hill; (+) Christie's, London, 11 March 1882, lot 158, as D. Teniers (45 gns. to the following);
Samson Wertheimer, London; (+) Christie's, London, 19 March 1892, lot 699, as D. Teniers (62 gns. to Sedelmeyer).
E. Warneck; sale, Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, 27-28 May 1926, lot 76 (36000 frs to Lugt).
with Antonini, from whom acquired by René Küss circa 1950.

Literature

J. Smith, A Catalogue raisonné, etc., III, London, 1831, no. 154.

Engraved

by Jean-François Basan, in reverse, in the Recueil d'estampes gravées d'après les tableaux du Cabinet de Monseigneur le Duc de Choiseul, Paris, lot 36.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

The duc de Choiseul was one of the most important and influential patrons of the arts in France in the eighteenth century, and his collecting interests extended from works by contemporary Italian and French artists, through Dutch and Flemish Old Masters, to antiquities. An unusual record of his collection can be seen on the so-called 'Choiseul box' (Paris, private collection), a gold snuff-box by Louis Roucel that includes five miniatures by Louis-Nicolas van Blarenberghe of Choiseul and his friends amongst his art collection. Choiseul owed his success in part to the patronage of the King's mistress Madame de Pompadour, but also to his skills as a politician. After his successful tenure in Rome, Madame de Pompadour obtained his transfer to the Imperial court in Vienna. He returned to Paris in 1758 and was appointed the King's Minister for Foreign Affairs, as well as being created a peer of France.

Dr. Margret Klinge has confirmed the attribution of the present picture on inspection of the original (written communication with René Küss, 14 April 1998). Klinge notes that it is 'très fin de touche et délicate de couleur de l'époque anversoise, peint dans les années 1645-8'.

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