David Teniers

Selected work

From the studio

5 works, from the studio to here.

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  Old Man and Woman

  Old Man and Woman

  David Teniers · oil on wood · 1700

  Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

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  Village Festival

  Village Festival

  David Teniers · oil on canvas · 1646

  Depictions of peasant festivals, such as weddings, harvests, and village holidays became an extremely popular subject for Flemish artists during the 1600s. In his paintings of these festive occasions David Teniers the Younger (1610–1690), portrayed peasants dancing and playing music, focusing on the cheerful elements of peasant life. His images often feature close-knit family groups taking part in the celebration. Contrary to his predecessors, who often depicted broken and disorderly still life objects in their paintings, Teniers emphasized household objects in brass, ceramic, and glass in a perfect state to demonstrate the growing prosperity of the peasants. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

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  Game of Backgammon

  Game of Backgammon

  David Teniers · oil on wood, transferred to canvas · 1640

  The game of backgammon has a long and popular history which can be traced back many centuries. The version of the game as it is played in modern times first appeared in the 1400s under various names. Its current appellation was coined around the same time as the date of this painting. Backgammon was exceptionally popular in the 1600s, and was often played for money or other wagers. The two men on the left side of this painting are clearly involved in a high stakes game of backgammon. A three-man cluster has gathered to watch them lay their bets, while another tallies their points on a scoreboard. The young lady in the right corner of the room otherwise surrounded by men and the older women who looks down on the game of backgammon from a window, both indicate that the interior presented in this painting is probably the gaming room of a brothel. Courtesans often worked out of such game rooms, providing further entertainment for men. Depictions of games, like procurement scenes, often symbolized moralizing virtues. Games were considered at best folly and at worst immoral. Backgammon was often used to represent the foolishness or wickedness of betting and wasting one's time. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

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  Landscape with Peasants Dancing

  Landscape with Peasants Dancing

  David Teniers · oil on wood · 1640

  Before a rustic inn, a group of villagers converse, embrace, and dance to a bagpiper’s tune. Teniers was one of many Netherlandish artists whose paintings celebrate the joys of country life. These delicately painted works were created primarily for an elite urban audience nostalgic for a simpler existence. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

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  Peasants Smoking in an Inn

  Peasants Smoking in an Inn

  David Teniers · oil on wood · 1635

  David Teniers the Younger was a popular artist who specialized in small paintings of rustic Flemish life in the 1600s. In works such as Peasants Smoking in an Inn, an older man and a younger man in the foreground smoke tobacco. The younger man rests limply against the wall and his head lolls back, a gesture that symbolized that he had overindulged in smoke. Another standing man prepares his pipe and watches the younger man with amusement. Tobacco was a novelty in the 1600s, introduced from the Americas and East Indies with other new imports such as sugar cane and rice, and was believed to be a medicinal product. It was particularly recommended for people who lived in "waterish places" such as Antwerp, the capital of Flanders, where Teniers painted this scene. Although many medical practitioners believed tobacco to be a cure for numerous ailments, moral opponents to smoking criticized it as a danger to health and morals. The mixed reputation and widespread popularity of tobacco smoking thus made it a marketable and amusing subject for Flemish artists such as Teniers. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

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