Follower of David Teniers the Younger, 'An Old Woman peeling Pears', after 1640s
About the work
Overview
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 left.
In the National Gallery version she sits, a model of demure virtue, alone with her faithful greyhound. The setting is a much more modest outhouse. A pile of gleaming pots and pans forms the still life, and a butter churn sits in the background gloom. Close examination of the painting style suggests that it may be by a follower of Teniers, possibly his brother Juliaen.
Several of the pans and some of the furniture, including the butter churn, reappear in another painting in the National Gallery’s collection, Teniers’s An Old Peasant caresses a Kitchen Maid in a Stable.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- An Old Woman peeling Pears
- Artist
- Follower of David Teniers the Younger
- Artist dates
- 1610 - 1690
- Date made
- after 1640s
- Medium and support
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 48.6 × 66.5 cm
- Inscription summary
- Inscribed
- Acquisition credit
- Bought, 1870
- Inventory number
- NG805
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
Provenance
Perhaps coll. Count d’Astorg (1787–1853), from whom purchased by G. H. Phillips; purchased from G. H. Phillips by the National Gallery, 1870; lent to the Art Galleries at Northampton, 1929, Burton on Trent, 1930, and Bradford, 1931, and to the Ministry of Works (now Public Buildings and Works), 1938–1941.
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
-
1870R.N. Wornum, Descriptive and Historical Catalogue of the Pictures in the National Gallery, London 1870
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1960H. Gerson and J.W. Goodison, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge: Catalogue of Paintings, vol. 1, Dutch and Flemish, Cambridge 1960
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1970G. Martin, The Flemish School, circa 1600-circa 1900, London 1970
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1980J.P. Davidson, David Teniers the Younger, London 1980
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1986Martin, Gregory, National Gallery Catalogues: The Flemish School, circa 1600 - circa 1900, London 1986
-
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
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