Item | Waddesdon Manor

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artist or maker

Teniers II, David (b.1610, d.1690)

Date

c 1649

dated by Royal Collection painting

Place of production

Flanders, Belgium

Medium

oil on panel

Type of object

paintings

Accession number

2570

Large oil painting of peasants dancing and feasting in a village. On the left side, there is a large thatched inn, with an area covered by a wooden awning and a yard in front, bordered at the back by a wooden fence that stretches half way across the composition. A large red flag with the knight of Saint George flies from the upper storey of the inn. Over the door there are two shields with coats of arms both surmounted by coronets, on the left: the arms of Leopold Whilhelm, Archduke of Austria and Governor of the Spanish Netherlands from 1647 to 1656; and on the right: the double eagle of the ruling Hapsburg Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III, Leopold's brother.

Many men and women dressed in peasant clothes sit and stand beneath the awning. They are engaged in different activities including drinking, talking and smoking. A woman leaves the kitchen doorway of the inn, carrying plates of food. A man stands in a doorway to the right, and an old woman looks through the window grill next to him. Beyond the covered area, a group of men and women dance in a circle to the music of a bag-piper who stands on a barrel. To the left of the group, a man grabs at a woman. Two men urinate against the back fence. In the left foreground, there is a table with several men, one of whom cuts a ham, and a woman being hugged by one of the men. To the right of the table, there sits a young man smoking; a piece of paper is on a low desk in front of him, he looks out diagonally left. Next to the inn, there are three houses, one with a smoking chimney, and a church.

In the right foreground stands a family group including three women, one a maid, three children, and a man, dressed in fine clothes including lace collars, with a dog and a horse. One of the women raises a fan between her and the scene to the left, to which she also points. A young girl with a flower looks out at the viewer. In the right background, there is another group of people dancing around a large pole decorated with foliage, buildings and trees. In the right foreground, there are barrels and a jug, and a man vomiting. Birds fly in the cloudy sky.

Commentary

David Teniers made several paintings of village celebrations on St. George's Day. They contrast rowdy peasants with polite local gentry. Sir Joshua Reynolds once offered 1000 guineas for this particularly fine example.

The peasants celebrate the spring festival of the Saint, represented on the flag flying from the inn. They eat, drink, dance, smoke, talk and make love. In the foreground, a genteel family accompanied by a maid converse amongst themselves. One of the ladies is both drawn to and shocked by the peasant's behaviour: she points to the dancers but hides her face with a fan. There is a long tradition that these people are representations of Teniers and his family: his first wife Anna Breughel, their eldest son and daughter Cornelia.

Another version of this subject is in the Royal Collection (RCIN 405952). It is dated 1649, the year after the Treaty of Münster brought an end to eighty years of war between the newly formed Dutch Republic and the Hapsburg Empire of which Flanders was a part. It is known from an inscription on a related drawing that Teniers painted another version of this scene for the leader of the Dutch Republic, William of Orange, Stadtholder, and it has been suggested that these paintings celebrated the newfound peace (Jane P Davidson; David Teniers the Younger; London; 1980, p. 6).

The coats of arms over the inn's door in the Waddesdon painting suggest that it was made for sympathisers of the Austrian cause. The coat of arms relate to the Governor of the Spanish Netherlands from 1647 to 1656, Leopold Wilhelm Hapsburg of Austria. Leopold was an important patron of Teniers - he employed him as a painter and as a keeper of pictures. By including his patron's coat of arms, Teniers may have been making a more general point about the celebratory quality of life under the new Governor's regime.

The general theme of peasants rejoicing was popular with both Flemish and Dutch wealthy patrons. They could enjoy vicariously the bodily delights depicted, whilst detaching themselves from associations of vice through assuming an elevated social position. The innocent little girl with the flower who looks out at the viewer provides a moral character with which to empathise. Teniers's paintings of peasants brought him much success. This composition was engraved by Thomas Major as 'La Fête du Village' in 1752, when it was in the collection of Bouchier Cleeve.

Phillippa Plock, 2011

Physical description

Dimensions (mm) / weight (mg)

712 x 1028
696 x 1005 - sight

Signature & date

signed, lower right: DAVID TENIERS F.

History

Provenance

Possibly owned by Jeanne Baptiste d'Albert de Luynes, Comtesse de Verrue (b.1670, d.1736); acquired by Bouchier Cleeve (b.1726?, d.1760); by descent to his daughter Anne or Elizabeth Cleeve (d.1833); acquired by Sir George, 5th Baronet Yonge (b.1731, d.1812) through marriage to Anne or Elizabeth Cleeve in 1765; bought by Philip Metcalfe (b.1735, d.1818) at Sir George Yonge sale, by Mr White, 25 Mar 1808, lot. no. 84; by descent to Henry Metcalfe (d.Circa 1850); bought by John Smith (b.1781, d.1855) at Henry Metcalfe sale, 15 June 1850, lot no. 44; bought from John Smith by Johann Moritz Oppenheim (d.1864) before 1854, when seen by Waagen; bought by Rutter at Johan Mortiz Oppenheim sale, 4 June 1864, for one of the Rothschilds, possibly Baron Anselm de Rothschild (b.1803, d.1874); probably by descent to his son Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild (b.1839, d.1898) before 1877; inherited by his sister Alice de Rothschild (b.1847, d.1922); inherited by her great-nephew James de Rothschild (b.1878, d.1957); bequeathed to Waddesdon (National Trust) in 1957.

Exhibition history

British Institute Exhibition, London, 1815, no. 102, lent by Philip Metcalfe
British Institute Exhibition, London, 1861, no. 74, lent by Johann Moritz Oppenheim
Royal Academy Exhibition, London, 1877, no. 58, as 'A Kermesse' lent by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild

Collection

Waddesdon (National Trust)
Bequest of James de Rothschild, 1957

Bibliography

John Smith; A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters; 9 vols; London; Smith and Son; 1829-1842; vol. 3, pp. 389-90, no. 495; as 'A Grand Village Fete'
Gustav Friedrich Waagen; Treasures of Art in Great Britain: being an account of the chief collections of paintings, drawings, sculptures, illuminated mss; 3 vols; London; John Murray; 1854-1857; vol. 2, p. 329
Ellis Waterhouse, Anthony Blunt; Paintings: The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor; Fribourg; Office du Livre, The National Trust; 1967; p. 204, cat no. 89

Related files

- http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/eGallery/object.asp?maker=TENIERSDY&object=405952&row=9 [accessed 14 July 2011, related painting in the Royal Collection, RCIN 405952]
- http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/eGallery/object.asp?maker=TENIERSDY&object=405952&row=9 [accessed 14 July 2011, related painting in the Royal Collection, RCIN 405952]

Other details

Subject person

David Teniers II, possibly pictured
Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor, Heraldry or Attributes
Leopold Wilhelm Hapsburg, Archduke of Austria, Heraldry or Attributes

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