David Teniers the Younger, 'Spring', about 1644
About the work
Overview
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 red waistcoat and cap with the feather warm up the otherwise chilly background.
Overhead, wispy grey clouds bear the signs of April showers to come, and the trees in the background are leafless and windblown. A figure in a long gown walks up the hill – perhaps it is Winter making way for Spring.
Other gardeners dig the soil. They appear to have traced a pattern in the earth to follow when planting new trees, making a formal garden in the fashionable style set by French designers and followed with keen interest in Flanders.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- Spring
- Artist
- David Teniers the Younger
- Artist dates
- 1610 - 1690
- Part of the series
- The Four Seasons
- Date made
- about 1644
- Medium and support
- oil on copper
- Dimensions
- 22.1 × 16.5 cm
- Inscription summary
- Signed
- Acquisition credit
- Bought, 1871
- Inventory number
- NG857
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Previous owners
Provenance
Perhaps La Comtesse de Verrue sale, Paris, 27–28 March, 1737 (49 or 50) sold for 290 francs. No. 857, and probably the whole series, coll. or ex coll. Mr. L’Abbé de Majinville by 1749. Perhaps Martin Robyns sale, Brussels, 22 May, 1758 (46), sold for 146 glds. Villers sale, Paris (Lebrun), 30 March, 1812 (27) 1,800 francs bt. in. Prince Talleyrand sale, Paris, 7–8 July, 1817 (34–37) bt. Buchanan. Coll. G. Watson Taylor by 1822, when exh. at the B.I. (102–105); G. Watson Taylor sale, Christie’s, 13 June, 1823 (45) bt. the Rt. Hon. Robert Peel (later Sir Robert Peel, Bart.) for £189; purchased with the Peel Collection, 1871; lent, through the Arts Council, to the City Art Gallery, Manchester, 1951–1963.
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.
Exhibition history
-
2011Winter Märchen: Winter-Darstellungen in der europäischen Kunst von Breugel bis BeuysKunsthistorisches Museum Wien18 October 2011 - 8 January 2012Kunsthaus Zürich10 February 2012 - 29 April 2012
Bibliography
-
1823J. Christie, A Catalogue of the Very Distinguished Collection of Italian, French, Flemish, Dutch and English Pictures… of George Watson Taylor, Esq., London, 13 June 1823 - 14 June 1823
-
1824W. Buchanan, Memoirs of Painting: With a Chronological History of the Importation of Pictures by the Great Masters into England Since the French Revolution, London 1824
-
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
-
1844A.M. Jameson, Companion to the Most Celebrated Private Galleries of Art in London: Containing Accurate Catalogues, Arranged Alphabetically, for Immediate Reference, Each Preceded by an Historical & Critical Introduction […], London 1844
-
1854G.F. Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain: Being and Account of the Chief Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Illuminated Mss. […], vol. 2, trans. E. Eastlake, London 1854
-
1970G. Martin, The Flemish School, circa 1600-circa 1900, London 1970
-
1983M. Levey, The Neglected National Gallery: An Exhibition of Paintings from the Lower Floor (exh. cat. The National Gallery, 20 April - 31 May 1983), London 1983
-
1986Martin, Gregory, National Gallery Catalogues: The Flemish School, circa 1600 - circa 1900, London 1986
-
1991M. Klinge, David Teniers de Jonge: Schilderijen, tekeningen (exh. cat. Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, 11 May - 1 September 1991), Ghent 1991
-
2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
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
About the series: The Four Seasons
David Teniers the Younger, 'Spring', about 1644
Overview
This series of four small paintings is an allegory of the seasons: spring, summer, autumn and winter have been given human forms that embody the essence of each. Spring is a gardener carrying a tree to plant in a formal garden; Summer is a peasant tying up a sheaf of corn; Autumn is a drinker who raises a glass of wine; and Winter is an old man wearing a fur cap and mantle, warming himself near a brazier.
Strongly influenced early in his career by the Dutch artist Adriaen Brouwer, Teniers became the most famous painter of peasant life of his day, rivalling Brouwer’s rowdy, raunchy tavern scenes full of larger-than-life characters.
Works in the series
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...
Not on display
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...
Not on display
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...
Not on display
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...
Not on display
More works by David Teniers the Younger
(Showing 6 of 20 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...
Not on display
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...
Not on display
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...
Not on display
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...
Not on display
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...
Not on display
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...
Not on display
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...
Not on display
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...
Not on display
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 p...
Not on display
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:...
Not on display
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...
Not on display
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...
Not on display
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...
Not on display
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...
Not on display
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...
Not on display
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...
Not on display
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...
Not on display
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...
Not on display
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...
Not on display
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...
Not on display
You've viewed 6 of 20 works