David (the Younger) Teniers
(December 15, 1610 - April 25, 1690) |
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Genre Narratives, Landscapes, Secular Narratives Art Work
| Name: |
David (the Younger) Teniers |
| Gender: |
Male |
| Place of Birth: |
Antwerp |
| Nationality: |
Flemish |
| Birth: |
December 15, 1610 |
| Death: |
April 25, 1690 |
| Website: |
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| Past Auctions: |
Click Here |
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Quick Facts
| Known For: |
Genre Narratives, Landscapes, Secular Narratives |
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| Style: |
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| Fine Art Profession(s): |
Painting
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Biography
| The most important Flemish genre painter after Adriaen Brouwer, David Teniers the Younger also produced one of the largest surviving oeuvres in the history of art. Estimates for authentic works range between 700 and 2,000. The pupil of his father, David the Elder, David the Younger was established as a master in 1632. In 1637 he married Anna Brueghel, daughter of Jan Brueghel the Elder. In 1644 David became dean of the Antwerp Guild. His career flourished, in part, from his prominent connections. Rubens* witnessed his marriage, and Helena Fourment (Rubens's second wife) was godmother to his first son. Teniers served Archduke Leopold Wilhelm as early as 1647 and moved to Brussels to become his court painter in 1651. Teniers retained the post under Don Jaun of Austria, who was governor from 1656 to 1659. While working for Archduke Leopold Wilhelm, Teniers served as his curator of collections and produced painted and engraved copies of the archduke's Italian paintings for a catalogue. Teniers's oeuvre from this period includes many "picture gallery" scenes, for which he is famous, such as Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in His Gallery (dated 1651, Brussels, Musees Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique). Other versions are known in Madrid, Munich, and Vienna. Teniers's aspirations to noble rank are well known and recounted by scholars. He applied for noble status in the 1650s during which questions were raised concerning his habit of selling pictures for money. His suit was ultimately successful in 1680. In the meantime, Teniers gained wealth (he acquired a summer residence, Three Towers, in 1662 from the count of Bergeijck, Helena Founnent's second husband), and 1663 saw him as one of the principal activists in establishing the Academie Royale in Antwerp. Teniers's country estate is considered one of the inspirations for the landscape paintings which entered his repertoire in the 1660s. His subjects also include Kermis scenes, biblical themes, occasional guardroom scenes, and portraits. Today Teniers is best known for his scenes of peasants at leisure or enjoying festivities at inns or at dances. His early experiments with genre subjects reflect the work of Fraos Francken the Younger,' while those painted after 1630 fall under the sway of Adriaen Brouwer. Teniers is still not completely understood. His authentic oeuvre is obscured by the many copies made in his lifetime and later. His debt to other artists has failed to earn him a place of top rank, but art historians now point to previously overlooked contributions such as his sensitively painted landscapes, which may anticipate late-eighteenth-century artists such as Watteau. Furthermore, it is impossible to understand the collecting habits and contemporary tastes of the Flemish nobility of the seventeenth century without looking long and hard at the works of David Teniers the Younger. |
Samples of Work
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