Notes
The extensive series of pastoral and genre tapestries depicting scenes of peasant life was immensely popular in the late seventeenth and eighteenth century and there are many surviving examples. These tapestries are generally known as 'Teniers' tapestries after the paintings of the artist David II Teniers (1610-1690) although very few compositions relate directly to his actual paintings. Although the majority of the 'Teniers' tapestries were woven in Brussels other pieces were woven in Lille, Oudenaarde, Antwerp, Beauvais, Aubusson, Madrid and London. As a result of being woven in many workshops across Europe, it is often difficult to determine the designers and weavers of the genre of tapestry after Teniers. Brussels workshops involved in weaving Teniers tapestries were those of Jeroen le Clerc (fl.1677-1722), Jacob II van der Borcht (fl.1756-1794), Urbanus (1674-1747) and Daniel II Leyniers (1669-1728 ), Judocus de Vos (1700-1735), and Peter van den Hecke (fl.1703-1752). Distinctive border types and signatures are of assistance and many pieces can help with attribution using these elements. Artists involved in the evolving designs, included Jan van Orley (1665-1735), Theobald Michau (1676-1765), Jacob van Helmont (1683-1726) and Ignatius de Hondt (1685-1715.) Figures were often painted by different artists and landscape artists contributed to this specific element within the tapestry compositions, and included Pieter Spierincx (1635-1711), Augustin Coppens (1668-1740), and Lucas Achtschellinck (1626-1699) as well as the original cartoon designers, van Orley and van Helmont. Interestingly, new cartoons were devised my incorporating groups or individual figures and landscape and architectural components from previous designs into new compositions. There is a core group of subjects, which included `The Kermesse', `The Fish Quay', `Return from the Harvest', `Gipsy Fortune Teller', `The Vegetable Market' and `Sportsmen Resting' amongst others, which were the most popularly woven original designs and interpretations of subjects, and others including the playing of games and various miscellaneous subjects and individual compositions such as the `Molecatcher', which were often woven in specific locations.
The present tapestry incorporates elements used in the versions of the original cartoons along with new motifs, such as the pilgrim in the foreground, and alters the compositional emphasis and placement of groupings. Historic inspiration is seen in the use of equestrian figures resting at a formal fountain within the composition, present in the `The Vegetable Market', woven by the Brussels workshop of Peter van den Hecke, later used by Urbanus and Daniel Leyniers within compositions of panels of `The Vegetable Market' and `The Watering Place', and inspiration from `The Fish Quay' designs after van der Borght. The present panel is is woven within a frame-pattern border type often associated with the main Brussels workshops and used on the original Teniers tapestries, for example by Urbanus and Daniel Leyniers. For the respective original compositions, see H. C. Marillier, Handbook to the Teniers Tapestries, London, 1932, pg.35. pl.29, pg.43. pl.30 and pg. 48, pl.12.
A set of four tapestry Scenes of Country Life, `after Teniers', woven by Urbanus Leyniers in 1729, now in the Rijksmuseum, have as a result of detailed research and cross referencing of source material, been attributed with the workshop, patron, date of delivery, names of designers. The tapestry panels depict `The Gipsy Fortune Teller', 'The Fish Quay', `The Fruit and Vegetable Market`, and `The Return from the Harvest', and they are all within narrow gold and red borders with scrolling acanthus leaves around a central stem. The panel depicting `The Fruit and Vegetable Market, includes a formal fountain at which horses rest and drink, with riders including a lady, which is a similar subject used in the offered tapestry panel, albeit in the foreground and more prominent in the composition of the present panel. Interestingly the figural type and dimensions are in turn similar in both panels, which highlights the fact of some similar motifs being used within the Teniers tapestry genre. See K. Brosens, Flemish Tapestry in European and American Collections – Studies in Honour of Guy Delmarcel, Brepols Belgium, 2003, article, Hillie Smit (Universiteit Leiden) New Data on the History of a set of Scenes of Country Life `after Teniers', in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, pp.153-159. This published research is helpful for consideration of the genre of Teniers tapestries with their similar themes and compositions, and range of European production sites over an extensive period of time. In addition for comprehensive discussion and colour photographs of this set, see Ebeltje Hartkamp-Jonxis and Hillie Smith, European Tapestries in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 2004, pp.160-166, cat.45a-54d.
Another set of tapestries and a fragment, which incorporate subject groupings from historic designs along with new interpretations of compositions, include a set of four tapestries from Scenes of Country Life, after Teniers, and a fragment, woven with groups with smaller figural type, are all within a distinctive border and unique border of frame pattern border with twisted scroll of acanthus leaf-trail and oak-leaf trail. The workshop and designer cannot be attributed in this group, but they are known to have been woven in the first quarter of the 18υth century. They are discussed in detail, in Ebeltje Hartkamp-Jonxis and Hillie Smith, opcit., pp.153-159. The subjects of the panels, are `Peasants Dancing and Sheep Shearing', `The Game of Wind-Ball', `The Harvester's Meal', and `Duck Hunters Catching and Binding a Poacher'. A further set of three tapestries in Schloss Ludwigsburg, are similar in subject matter, including the `Peasants Dancing and Sheep Shearing' and `The Game of Wind-Ball', and a panel of `Pig Killing', within gold and red frame pattern borders, which show some similarities of concept to the borders of the present tapestry in having hints of leaf tips on the outer edge and main narrow border strip with repeat pattern, albeit it different motifs, emphasising the difficulty of attributing unsigned pieces fully. See Baden Württemberg Collection Germany. Tapisserien Wandteppiche aus den Staatliche Schlösser und Gärten Baden-Württemberg, 2002, pp.138-140, 21a-21d, for these tapestries, and a weaving of `Procession of the Fat Ox', Brussels, circa 1730, Pieter van den Hecke, within a similar leaf tip outer gold and red frame pattern border, with delicate acanthus leaf clasp corners. A tapestry panel in exactly the same border type as the offered tapestry, depicting `The Boers at Rest', attributed to Judocus de Vos (due to being sold with other De Vos pieces), from the Collection of Countess of Craven, Coombe Abbey, was sold at Christie's, London, 25υth April 1922, and later at Sotheby's, Florence, 16υth April 1986, lot 411 and Sotheby's, London, 12υth December 1975, lot 7.
