Lot 124: DAVID TENIERS THE YOUNGER

DAVID TENIERS THE YOUNGER ANTWERP 1610 - 1690 BRUSSELS A YOUNG COUPLE IN AN INN ENGRAVED: IN REVERSE, BY JACQUES-NICOLAS TARDIEU (1716-1791), IN 1748, ENTITLED LE DESJEUNER FLAMAND. signed on the edge of the table lower left: D. Teniers. F. oil on oak panel 28 by 40 cm.; 11 by 15 3/4 in.

J.B. Descamps, La vie des peintres flamands, allemands et hollandais, vol. 2, Paris 1754, p. 165 (Cabinet de M. le Comte de Vence 'La Dévote malade');
J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné..., vol. 3, London 1831, p. 284, no. 79.

Claude-Alexandre de Villeneuve (1703-1760), Comte de Vence, Paris, by 1748;
His sale, Paris, Rémy, 9-17 February 1761, lot 64 (together with the Alchemist now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna);
Destouches;
His sale, Paris, Lebrun & Julliot, 21 March 1794, lot 71 (together with the Alchemist);
Comte Vilain XIV, Brussels, 1857;
P.J. Huybrechts, Antwerp;
Christophe Rhaban Ruhl, Cologne;
His sale, Cologne, Heberle, 18 May 1876, lot 104;
Hans Heinrich Vieweg (1826-1890), Braunschweig;
His sale, Berlin, Lepke, 18 March 1930, lot 17;
Anonymous sale, Lucerne, Fischer, 21-22 June 1968, lot 650;
Private collection, Switzerland;
With Gallery Sanct Lucas, Vienna, 1999;
With Noortman Gallery, Maastricht & London, 1999;
Private collection, The Netherlands;
Anonymous sale ("The Property of a Private Collector"), London, Sotheby's, 9 December 2009, lot 10.

In the 1660s, David Teniers started to paint small-scale genre scenes with the principal figures seen in half-length, and placed close to the picture plane. This one dates to circa 1667-68, as Margret Klinge confirmed when this picture was last on the market in 1999.

John Smith (see literature) thought the man holding a jug to be a self portrait of Teniers, and fancifully suggested that young woman was dressed like a nun.

The earliest known owner of this painting, the Comte de Vence was one of the leading collectors in Paris in the mid-18th century, at a time when small-scale cabinet pictures were hugely popular. He commissioned Jacques-Nicolas Tardieu to engrave the best pictures in his collection, including this one.

Hans Heinrich Vieweg, who owned the painting in the 19th century, represented the third generation of a family of important German publishers. The Vieweg publishing house was founded by Hans Heinrich's grandfather Friedrich (1761-1835) in 1786, publishing Johann Wolfgang Goethe's works. Later the company specialised in scientific publications.