David Teniers II

(Antwerp 1610–1690 Brussels)
A tavern interior with young men playing cards,
signed lower right: D TENIERS F,
oil on panel, 38.5 x 32 cm, framed
Provenance:
sale, Christie’s, London, 28 June 1974, lot 38;
with David M. Koetser, Zurich, 1975;
where acquired by the present owner

Margret Klinge confirmed the attribution of the present painting after examination of the original in 1975. She reconfirmed the attribution in 1992.

The present painting is listed in the RKD database under no. 6419 (as David Teniers II) and can be dated to around 1685/90.

The card player with the red beret in the present work recalls the pose of the figure in the artist’s painting entitled The Smoker, conserved in the Villa Vauban, Luxembourg (inv. no. 341).

Around the mid-1640s David Teniers II introduced tavern interiors into his works and remained true to this settings, all with similar colours and compositions, until his late artistic production. The artist was so successful with his genre scenes that Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria, an important collector for whom he had worked since 1647, appointed him court painter in 1651.