David Teniers the Younger, 'Peasants playing Bowls outside a Village Inn', about 1660
About the work
Overview
Teniers’s imaginary landscape shows peasants at their leisure. The sheep on the far side of the river enjoy the best of the fitful sunshine, but with a few strokes of the brush Teniers created a shower of rain over the substantial village and the church in the distance.
The men in the foreground playing bowls are in shadow, though the white shirt of one competitor stands out as he bends to take aim. His target is a stick fixed in the ground rather than a jack and they play on uneven ground rather than grass – far from the smooth lawns used today – but it is essentially the same game.
Images of the activities of peasants appear to have had great appeal to middle-class picture buyers in the seventeenth-century Netherlands, both Holland and Flanders. Teniers made a career of these scenes, and they built up his reputation as well as his wealth.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- Peasants playing Bowls outside a Village Inn
- Artist
- David Teniers the Younger
- Artist dates
- 1610 - 1690
- Date made
- about 1660
- Medium and support
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 120.2 × 191 cm
- Inscription summary
- Signed
- Acquisition credit
- Wynn Ellis Bequest, 1876
- Inventory number
- NG951
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Previous owners
- Frame
- 18th-century French Frame
Provenance
Perhaps in the one or some of the following sales: Dr. Bearcroft sale, Langford, 12 February ( = 2nd day), 1762 (24); Robert Ansell sale, Walsh, 25 March ( = 2nd day), 1775 (81); Robert Heathcote sale, Phillips, 5 April, 1805 (34) £170 bt. Dormer. Probably in the John Humble sale, Christie’s, 11 April, 1812 (33) bt. Hannytoe for £144. Anon. ( = Lafontaine) sale, Christie’s, 8 May, 1813 (74) £680 10 sh. bt. in; Varoc ( = Lafontaine) sale, Lebrun (Paris), 28 ff. May, 1821 (81); Varoc ( = Lafontaine) sale, Phillips, 29 June ( = 2nd day), 1822 (160). Probably coll. the Chevalier Sebastian Erard, 1831; his sale, 7–14 August, 1832 (144) 4,990 francs (?) bt. in; his (†) sale, Christie’s, 22 June, 1833 (19) bt. Taylor for £152. Wynn Ellis Bequest 1876; lent to the City Art Gallery, Leeds, 1934, and to the Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield, 1937.
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Gregory Martin, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Flemish School: circa 1600–circa 1900’, London 1986; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Bibliography
-
1830
J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish, and French Painters: In Which is Included a Short Biographical Notice of the Artists, with a Copious Description of Their Principal Pictures […], vol. 2, London 1830
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1877R.N. Wornum, Descriptive and Historical Catalogue of Pictures in the National Gallery, British School, Foreign Schools, London 1877
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1970G. Martin, The Flemish School, circa 1600-circa 1900, London 1970
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1975M. Díaz Padrón, Museo del Prado, catálogo de pinturas, escuela flamenca, siglo XVII, Madrid 1975
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1980M. Klinge, Bruegel: Une dynastie de peintres (exh. cat. Palais des Beaux-Arts, 18 September - 18 November 1980), Brussels 1980
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1986Martin, Gregory, National Gallery Catalogues: The Flemish School, circa 1600 - circa 1900, London 1986
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1994D. Teniers, David Teniers d.J: 1610-1690, ed. P. Tiegel-Hertfelder, Kassel 1994
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1995M. Díaz Padrón, El siglo de Rubens en el Museo del Prado: Catálogo razonado de pintura flamenca del siglo XVII, Madrid 1995
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2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
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2005M. Klinge and D. Lüdke, David Teniers der Jüngere 1610-1690: Alltag und Vergnügen in Flandern, (exh. cat. Staatliche Kunsthalle, 5 November 2005 - 19 February 2006), Heidelberg 2005
About this record
If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.
Images
More works by David Teniers the Younger
(Showing 6 of 23 works)
While many of Teniers’ paintings show an invented landscape, this view perhaps shows a castle in the distance that may one day be identified. Judging by the new shoots on the trees between the cottage and the river, this is a spring scene. But Teniers was never content with showing a pleasant vie...
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David Teniers the Younger was one of the most successful Flemish painters of the seventeenth century. His work was prized by important collectors, and he amassed great wealth and attained high status himself: he was awarded a patent of nobility in 1680. At this time there was a fashion for pictur...
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David Teniers painted caricatures in imaginary landscapes, a background to his comic characters. Here, three men stand facing each other in a circle. One reaches into an inner pocket and looks with a shifty half-smile at the man in the blue coat, whose straight back hints at a military background...
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David Teniers seldom painted identifiable buildings, but in this case the large house partially hidden by trees has been identified as Het Sterckshof near Antwerp. It belonged to Jacob Edelheer, who was city secretary as well as a collector of artworks and scientific instruments.The figures on th...
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David Teniers the Younger made his fortune painting bawdy scenes like this one. They were popular with wealthy collectors who were proud of their own good manners compared with those ascribed to peasants (they also found the pictures amusing).The unfortunate young woman on her knees has lost a sh...
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A wine drinker – a stout fellow with a handsome moustache – represents Autumn in a series of paintings by David Teniers that gives each season a human form. A white sash cradles a comfortable belly, and stretched over it is a wine-coloured jacket. His fat neck disappears into the collar of his ja...
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In a guardroom that looks more like a Flemish tavern than a prison, a crown of thorns is being placed on Christ’s head. This humiliating moment, recounted in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and John, was one of a number of such episodes in the lead-up to Christ’s crucifixion. Here, the henchmen wear...
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A towering rain cloud seems to threaten an early close to this game of archery. Perhaps the storm will come as a relief – although the archer takes aim with an eager eye, only one of the three arrows already shot has hit the target. The game seems almost incidental, however: Teniers is here telli...
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This grand country house has been identified as Kasteel d’Ursel in Hingene on the border between the old Duchy of Brabant and the County of Flanders. It was the private summer residence of the Duke of Ursel, a powerful aristocrat from nearby Antwerp and it still exists, though it has changed sig...
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This is the first of a series of paintings by David Teniers in which the four seasons are given human form. Here, Spring is personified as a young gardener with a bushy beard, heaving a heavy pot containing a sapling. His step is jaunty and he has a gleam in his eye. His jacket looks new, and his...
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A young peasant – beardless and red-cheeked, with curly hair and a dreamy look in his eye – represents Summer in the second of Teniers' allegorical paintings of the seasons. Behind him the trees are in full leaf and the distance is hazy with heat; above, the clouds are light and puffy.The youth s...
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In one of his parables, Christ told of a rich man who squirrelled away his grain and his goods, hoarding them to ensure his future comfort instead of using them for charitable deeds. But God commanded that the man’s time to die had come: ‘Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee:...
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The fires of hell light up Teniers’s cave-like underworld with an eerie glow. An old man stands, hands raised in self-defence, his eyes wide with fear at the sight of the horrors around him. Weird creatures gather in glee to welcome another soul into the dreadful place that his greed and avarice...
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Two bearded old men sit at a small table playing cards. What little light there is focuses on the white cap of one and the grey hair of the other, as well as their white collars, and reveals them to be better dressed than some other patrons of the inn. In the dingy back room, a young woman sits b...
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Teniers brings the cycle of the seasons full circle – and his series of paintings of the seasons to an end – with an old man representing Winter. Wrapped in velvet and fur, he hunches over to warm his hands at a brazier. His face is lined and wrinkled, his beard long and frosted with white. But h...
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Probably by David Teniers the Younger
Pictures of mysterious characters dressed in exotic clothing against a background of dangerously steep mountains and distant castles were very popular in seventeenth-century Flanders. The idea of the romantic wanderer caught the imagination, and inspired attractive narrative paintings that were o...
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Probably by David Teniers the Younger
Backgammon (triktrak in Dutch) was a highly popular board game in seventeenth-century Flanders, especially in taverns and drinking dens, where players would bet on the outcome. The white cube we see in the centre of the board is probably a doubling die, used to up the stakes. Gambling of this kin...
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Follower of David Teniers the Younger
Structurally and thematically, this picture is similar to one of Teniers’s best-known paintings, Kitchen Interior (Mauritshuis, The Hague), which shows a seated woman peeling apples in a cavernous kitchen with a still life of fruit, pots and a panoply of dead game to her right and a dog to her le...
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Imitator of David Teniers the Younger
An assistant prepares a plaster at the table while the doctor treats a patient’s foot. This composition is derived from works by Adriaen Brouwer, who had a profound influence on Teniers. Teniers made several variations on the theme, which were often imitated by his contemporaries and later artist...
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Imitator of David Teniers the Younger
An old woman looks down intently at the large book she holds open – very likely a Bible, since she’s dressed in the plain clothing often worn by Calvinists, followers of a strict branch of the Protestant faith. This isn‘t a portrait but a tronie, pictures which showed stock characters, often with...
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Imitator of David Teniers the Younger
This painting of a man wearing a jaunty, feathered cap and holding up a glass of beer, a refill jug in his other hand, has historically been called ‘The Toper’. This was a popular term for a drinker or a drunkard, and a relatively common subject in Dutch and Flemish painting. However, it is possi...
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Studio of David Teniers the Younger
An old man playing a lute and wearing a bright blue and yellow minstrel’s outfit is the focus of this gloomy tavern scene by a follower of David Teniers the Younger. He hunches over in concentration as he tunes the strings; to the left, an old woman holds up sheet music, her mouth slightly open a...
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Country peasants and smartly dressed gentlefolk assemble for a feast on the rolling hills outside Antwerp, seen silhouetted on the horizon. Cooks are busy preparing the meal in large cauldrons while birds wheel in the sky above, anticipating the pickings soon to be had. A stone cross carved with...
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You've viewed 6 of 23 works