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A VILLAGE SCENE WITH FOUR PEASANTS PLAYING BOWLS BEFORE A TAVERN, TWO COTTAGES BEYOND

A VILLAGE SCENE WITH FOUR PEASANTS PLAYING BOWLS BEFORE A TAVERN, TWO COTTAGES BEYOND

measurements note
35.8 by 52 cm.; 14 1/8 by 20 1/2 in.

signed lower left: D. TENIERS

oil on oak panel, in a carved and gilt wood frame

PROVENANCE

Auguste Marie Raymond, Prince d'Arenberg and Count of Marck (1753 - 1833), Rue Ducale, Brussels, by 1829;
By descent on his death in 1833 to his nephew Prosper Louis, Duke d'Arenberg (1785 - 1861), at the Palais d'Arenberg, Brussels (where recorded as hanging in 1855 in the 1859 inventory);
With Edward Speelman, London;
From whom believed to have been acquired by the late father of the present owners in 1956.

LITERATURE

A.M.R. Prince d'Arenberg, Lithographies d'après les principaux tableaux de la collection de S.A.S. Monseigneur le Prince Auguste d'Arenberg, avec le catalogue descriptif, Brussels 1829, pp. 14-15, cat. no. 79;
J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné..., vol. III, London 1831, p. 430, no. 643;
A.M.R. Prince d'Arenberg, Catalogue et description des tableaux qui forment la collection de S.A.S. le Prince Auguste d'Arenberg, Brussels 1833, pp. 34-35, cat. no. 85;
W. Burger, Catalogue of the Arenberg Collection, 1854;
T. Thoré, Etudes sur les peintres hollandais et flamandes, Galerie d'Arenberg à Bruxelles avec le catalogue complet de la collection, Paris 1859, pp. 91, 172, cat. no. 99.

NOTE

This painting dates from the mid-1640s, during Teniers' mature Antwerp period and prior to his departure for Brussels following his appointment in 1651 as Court Painter to the Archduke Leopold William.

It was precisely this type of genre scene that established Teniers' high reputation in Antwerp, which resulted in his appointment as Dean of the Guild of Saint Luke in 1644-45, as well as the award of a number of highly prestigious commissions, including a large group portrait of the Arquebusiers, of 1643, today in the Hermitage, Saint Petersburg.

In keeping with paintings of the 1640s (and 1650s) the present work is characterised by a silvery tonality and a pastel-like palette which generate an increased lightness and greater optimism in his works than present in his darker scenes of the previous decade, inspired by the work of Adrian Brouwer (who had settled in Antwerp in 1631).

Teniers excelled in the observation of everyday activities and popular pastimes in Flanders and the Brabant, such as bowls, skittles, croquet and archery. As in his painting of this subject today in the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh (datable after 1635), the present scene records the key moment at which the fourth and final player unleashes his bowl in the hope of improving upon the remarkably accurate throws of his fellow players.

Auguste Marie Raymond, Prince d'Arenberg (1753 - 1833) was an important public figure and homme de lettres in pre-revolutionary France. He was a friend of Queen Marie Antoinette and a close acquaintance to Count Mirabeau. He assembled a magnificent collection of paintings, which were displayed in his house in the Rue Ducale, Brussels. On his death in 1833 the collection was inherited by his nephew Prosper Louis, Duke d'Arenberg (1785 - 1861), and was moved to the Palais d'Arenberg, Brussels, where the present work is recorded as hanging in 1855.

We are grateful to Frau Margret Klinge for endorsing the attribution to David Teniers, following first hand inspection, and for dating the picture to the mid-1640s.