The Card Players

Book Description

London: Sold by John Boydell, Engraver in Cheapside, April 1st, 1771. Hand coloured engraving. Printed on thick laid paper. In excellent condition with wide margins. Image size: 14 1/4 x 19 3/8 inches. 16 3/8 x 20 1/2 inches. 19 1/8 x 25 1/2 inches. A wonderful image of card players in a tavern, by the celebrated Flemish painter David Teniers the Younger. Indoor tavern scenes such as this were a picture type particularly associated with Dutch art of the seventeenth century, but Teniers, a Flemish painter, did a number of works in this genre. Born in Antwerp, David Teniers the Younger was the son the David Teniers I. He became a master of the Antwerp Guild of St. Luke in 1632-3 after an apprenticeship to his father, with whom he also collaborated. In 1637 he married Anna, the daughter and heiress of Jan Breughel I. From the outset,Teniers the Younger was an extremely productive painter and had a large and varied output. During the 1630s he produced small-format religious scenes on commission for the successful art dealer, Chrysostoom van Immerseel, who supplied the Spanish market. However, it was Teniers' genre pieces that were greatly prized and earned him his celebrated reputation. Teniers quickly became one of Antwerp's most successful painters, garnering such prestigious commissions as the large group portrait of the Arquebusiers Company (1643). During this same Antwerp period he also executed commissions for Antonine Triest (1576-1657), Bishop of Bruges, one of the most prominent patrons of the arts in the southern Netherlands. By 1647 Teniers was working for Archduke Leopold William, Governor of the Catholic Netherlands from 1646, and in 1651 he became the Archduke's court painter. He consequently moved from Antwerp to the court at Brussels, and in 1656 he bought a building near the archducal palace and had it rebuilt as a spacious and handsome house-cum-studio. A prolific genre painter, Teniers did a number of paintings of card players and tavern scenes, many of which found their way into English collections. Dedicated to the noted collector, Sir Andrew Fountaine, Baron copied this plate from the painting in Dr. Richard Mead's prized collection. Considered a true renaissance man, Richard Mead was one of the chief physicians of his day. His list of esteemed patients included, the Royal household, Sir Robert Walpole, Alexander Pope and most of London's fashionable society. In addition to being a talented physician, he was an accomplished writer and scholar, and an esteemed collector. Mead's collection ranged in scope from books to gem stones and was as much admired for its quality as it was for its diversity. Lovingly engraved by Baron this wonderful image is a superb example of Teniers' magnificent painting and a fascinating record of Dr. Mead's most prized old master work.

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