Lot 2068 Dα

This small-format painting with a peasant couple smoking and drinking was not previously known to be a work by David Teniers. Margret Klinge dates the well-preserved painting to the artist's Brussels period. He probably painted it in the early 1660s. The interior scene concentrates on a few protagonists and objects, which Teniers captured with great skill. The jug that the man holds in his hand has been vividly rendered with beautiful reflections of light. Teniers used the motif of the old woman sitting at the table in front of a stove, crumbling tobacco over a piece of paper with one hand, in a very similar way in an interior with smokers that was once held in the Schönborn Collection, Pommersfelden (see Rouillac auction, Paris, 6th June 2021, lot 10).