David Teniers the Younger (Antwerp 1610-Brussels 1690)
A Family Standing in a Landscape with a Moated House in the Background c.1649-50
Oil on canvas | 96.9 x 197.0 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external) | RCIN 404844
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This is clearly a portrait of a family in front of their moated country house (or a general ideal of a country house), with an old-style Flemish stepped gable clearly visible. There is no reason to suppose that it is the artist himself who is depicted, as George IV believed (see below). It is interesting that the lord of the manor is shown in such lowly surroundings outside what is presumably a small estate farm or workman’s cottage. This work should probably be dated to c. 1650. Its long format occurs in other works of this date and suggests tat some specific setting was intended, perhaps a frieze of landscapes just underneath the cornice of room.
Provenance
In the Marquise de Marigny collection in 1781; in the Calonne sale of 1788; acquired by George IV before 1806; recorded in the Anti Room, Ground Floor, at Carlton House in 1819 (no 138) as ‘Teniers’s family with the gardener’; in the Picture Gallery at Buckingham Palace in 1841 (no 112)
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Medium and techniques
Oil on canvas
Measurements
96.9 x 197.0 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external)
131.7 x 230.3 x 7.2 cm (frame, external)
Category
Object type(s)
Other number(s)
Alternative title(s)
The family of the painter, traditionally identified as
A castle and its owner
