Lot 1040 D α

David Teniers the Younger was the most famous painter of peasant scenes in the 17th century. Highly sought after during his lifetime - so much so that in 1651 Archduke Leopold Wilhelm, then Governor of the Spanish Netherlands, appointed him court painter - his works continued to be collected throughout the 18th century and remain held today in some of the world’s most prestigious museums.


While his early peasant scenes were predominantly inspired by the coarse and satirical works of Adriaen Brouwers, his later paintings tend towards an idealised, romanticised representation. This interior scene features a smoking peasant as the main figure, dressed in vibrant reds and blues. He is joined by another seated smoker wearing a dark beret adorned with a feather. The composition, confined within a tight frame, is completed by a figure at the left edge of the picture and a man in the right background relieving himself against a wall—a quirky motif occasionally found in peasant genre scenes as well as in works by the Bamboccianti, the Dutch artists active in 17th-century Rome.
Teniers’ meticulous painting technique, which pays close attention to every detail, is evident in such a refined element as the smoke rising not only from the two pipes but also from the mouth of one of the smokers.