David Teniers
the Younger
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
David Teniers the Younger (December 15, 1610 – April 25, 1690), a
Flemish artist born in Antwerp, was the more celebrated son of David
Teniers the Elder, almost ranking in celebrity with Rubens and Van
Dyck. His son David Teniers III and his grandson David Teniers IV
were also painters. His wife Anna née, Anna Breughel was the
daughter of Jan Brueghel the Elder and the granddaughter of Pieter
Bruegel the Elder.
Through his father,
he was indirectly influenced by Elsheimer and by Rubens. The
influence of Adriaen Brouwer can be traced to the outset of his
career. There is no evidence, however, that either Rubens or Brouwer
interfered in any way with Teniers's education, and Smith (Catalogue
Raisonné) may be correct in supposing that the admiration which
Brouwer's pictures at one time excited alone suggested to the
younger artist his imitation of them. The only trace of personal
relations having existed between Teniers and Rubens is the fact that
the ward of the latter, Anne Breughel, the daughter of Jan (Velvet)
Breughel, married Teniers in 1637.
Early work
Admitted as a "master" in the Guild of St Luke in 1632, Teniers
had even before this made the public acquainted with his works. The
Berlin Museum possesses a group of ladies and gentlemen dated 1630.
No special signature positively distinguishes these first
productions from those of his father, and we do not think it correct
to admit with some writers that he first painted religious subjects.
Dr. Bode, in a remarkable study of Brouwer and his works, expresses
the opinion that Teniers's earliest pictures are those found under
the signature "Tenier." "Tenier" is a Flemish version of a
thoroughly Walloon name, "Taisnier" which the painter's grandfather,
a mercer, brought with him when he came from Ath in 1558; and Dr.
Bode's supposition is greatly strengthened by the circumstance that
not only David the elder but his brother Abraham and his four sons
were all inscribed as "Tenier" in the ledgers of the Antwerp guild
of St Luke.
Some really
first-rate works--the Prodigal Son and a group of Topers in
the Munich Gallery, as well as a party of gentlemen and ladies at
dinner, termed the Five Senses, in the Brussels Museum--with the
above signature are remarkable instances of the perfection attained
by the artist when he may be supposed to have been scarcely twenty.
His touch is of the rarest delicacy, his colour at once gay and
harmonious. Waagen and Smith agree that the works painted from 1645
to 1650 testify most highly to the master's abilities; there is no
doubt that a considerable number of earlier productions would have
been sufficient to immortalize his name.
He was little over
thirty when the Antwerp guild of St. George enabled him to paint the
marvellous picture which ultimately found its way to the Hermitage
in St. Petersburg the Meeting of the Civic Guards. Correct to the
minutest detail, yet striking in effect, the scene, under the rays
of glorious sunshine, displays an astonishing amount of acquired
knowledge and natural good taste. This painting leads us to mention
another work of the same year (1643), now in the National Gallery,
London, The Village Fete (or La fete aux chaudrons) (No. 952), an
equally beautiful repetition of which, dated 1646, belongs to the
duke of Bedford.
Truth in
physiognomy, distribution of groups, the beautiful effect of light
and shade, command our warmest admiration. A work like this,
according to Waagen, stamps its author as the greatest among
painters of his class. Frankness in expression and freedom in
attitude guided his preference in the choice of a model, but we may
suppose him occasionally to have exaggerated both. He seems anxious
to have it known that, far from indulging in the coarse amusements
of the boors he is fond of painting, he himself lives in good style,
looks like a gentleman, and behaves as such. He never seems tired of
showing the turrets of his chateau of Perck, and in the midst of
rustic merry-makings we often see his family and himself received
cap in hand by the joyous peasants. We may also observe that he has
a certain number of favorite models, the constant recurrence of whom
is a special feature of his works. We have even met them in a series
of life-size portrait-like figures in the Doria Pamphilj Gallery in
Rome.
Maturity
Teniers was chosen by the common council of Antwerp to preside
over the guild of painters in 1644. The Archduke Leopold Wilhelm,
who had assumed the government of the Spanish Netherlands, being a
great lover of art, employed Teniers not only as a painter but as
keeper of the collection of pictures he was then forming. With the
rank and title of "ayuda de camara," Teniers took up his abode in
Brussels shortly after 1647. Immense sums were spent in the
acquisition of paintings for the archduke. A number of valuable
works of the Italian masters, now in the Vienna Museum, came from
Leopold's gallery after having belonged to Charles I and the Duke of
Buckingham. De Bie (1661) states that Teniers was some time in
London, collecting pictures for the Duke of Fuensaldana, then acting
as Leopold's lieutenant in the Netherlands. Paintings in Madrid,
Munich, Vienna and Brussels have enabled art critics to form an
opinion of what the imperial residence was at the time of Leopold,
who is represented as conducted by Teniers and admiring some recent
acquisition. No picture in the gallery is omitted, every one being
inscribed with a number and the name of its author, so that the
ensemble of these paintings might serve as an illustrated inventory
of the collection. Still more interesting is a canvas, now in the
Munich Gallery, where we see Teniers at work in a room of the
palace, with an old peasant as a model and several gentlemen looking
on.
When Leopold
returned to Vienna, Teniers's task ceased; in fact, the pictures
also travelled to Austria, and a Flemish priest, himself a
first-rate flower painter, Van der Baren, became keeper of the
archducal gallery. Teniers nevertheless remained in high favor with
the new governor-general, Don Juan of Austria, a natural son of
Philip IV of Spain. The prince was his pupil, and de Bie tells us he
painted the likeness of the painter's son.
David Teniers the
Younger was honoured as one of the greatest painters in Europe.
Shortly after the death of his wife in 1656, he married Isabella de
Fren, daughter of the secretary of the council of Brabant, and
strove his utmost to prove his right to armorial bearings. In a
petition to the king he reminded him that the honour of knighthood
had been bestowed upon Rubens and Van Dyck. The king at last
declared his readiness to grant the request, but on the express
condition that Teniers should give up selling his pictures. The
condition was not complied with; but it may perhaps account for his
interest in founding an academy in Antwerp strictly limited to
painters and sculptors. (The venerable Guild of St. Luke made no
difference between art and handicraft: carvers, gilders,
bookbinders, stood on an even footing with painters and sculptors:
which separation was not made until 1773.) There were great
rejoicings in Antwerp when, on 26 January 1663, Teniers came from
Brussels with the royal charter creating the Antwerp Royal Academy
of Fine Arts, the existence of which was due entirely to his
personal initiative.
Death
Teniers died in Brussels on 25 April 1690. The date is often
wrongly given as 1694 or 1695. A picture in the Munich Gallery (No.
906), dated 1680, represents him as an alchemist, oppressed with a
burden of age beyond his years. From this date, more is documented
of his doings as a picture-dealer than as a painter, which most
probably gave birth to the legend of his having given himself out as
deceased in order to get higher prices for his works. David, his
eldest son, a painter of talent and reputation, had died in 1685.
One of this third Teniers's pictures--"St Dominic Kneeling before
the Blessed Virgin," dated 1666--is still to be found in the church
at Perck. As well as his father, he contributed many patterns to the
celebrated Brussels tapestry looms.
