David Teniers The Younger

Essay:

Engraved by Lucas Vorsterman (1595 - 1675) as one of the plates for the Theatrum Pictorium, numbered 195. The painting retains its original frame from the Duke of Marlborough's collection. The original painting by Palma il Vecchio is in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (GG63).

David Teniers worked on the Theatrum Pictorium in the 1660s. It was a record of the most important Italian paintings in the collection of the Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria. He had amassed one of the greatest art collections of the age while governor of the Netherlands and Teniers had become its curator after the death of Jan van den Hoecke in 1651. This catalogue of paintings numbered 243 items. Each painting was depicted in miniature by Teniers and then engraved by an army of engravers (12 in all), the largest contributors being Jan van Troyen, Lucas Vorsterman the Younger, Pieter van Lisebetten, Theodoor van Kessel and Coryn Boel.

The series of paintings done by Teniers of the collection in situ in Brussels are now spread amongst the great European Institutions. They depict the Archduke standing proudly amongst his possessions and in discussion with various courtiers. They are profoundly important documents to understand collecting tastes of the day, as well as important paintings in their own right. The Archduke's collection now forms the basis of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

We are grateful to Dr Margaret Klinge for her confirmation of the attribution to Teniers on the basis of photographs.

Verso collection numbers N 14, N 21
Christies stock number 665W

Provenance:

Collection of the 8th Duke of Marlborough, Blenheim Palace until 1886;
Sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 26th June 1886, lot 169;
Fairfax-Murray Collection;
Diamanten-Regie, Berlin; their sale Paul Graupe, Berlin, 27-29 May 1935, lot 46;
Private Collection, Germany

Literature:

George Scharf, 'Catalogue Raisonné or A list of the Pictures in Blenheim Palace,' Part I, London, 1862, p.165, no. 195 (Vaughan Thomas no 120);
'A Collection of 120 Paintings by David Teniers from Blenheim Palace', Charles Davis Gallery, London, January 1885,no. 195;
Dr. Philip Rylands,' Palma Il Vecchio, L' Opera Completa', Milan, 1988,

Exhibitions:

'A Collection of 120 Paintings by David Teniers from Blenheim Palace', Charles Davis Gallery, London, January 1885, no. 195