Full Record |
| Title |
Village Party by the Pond |
| Collection |
Fairfax House, York |
| Artist |
Attributed to manner of Teniers, David, II (Flemish painter, 1610-1690) |
| Date Earliest |
about 1645 |
| Date Latest |
about 1690 |
| Description |
Landscape, religious and genre painter, portraitist and etcher, David Teniers the Younger was first active in Antwerp and then in Brussels. The artist's great renown attracted numerous copyists, even during his own lifetime. Among their number was the painter of the Fairfax House canvas. This scene of merrymaking includes little pockets of action: a wife tries to raise her fallen, tipsy husband; two intoxicated men are led away by friends; villagers dance and make music; three men urinate against walls. The picture shows a sociable gathering of young and old folk, perhaps after the harvest. The viewer is encouraged to think of Flemish peasants as pleased and content with their lot, with plenty of time on their hands for village parties. Pictures of the well-fed, happy poor were also popular among the more affluent classes in Britain the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. |
| Current Accession Number |
NT1984/013 |
| Former Accession Number |
P2 |
| Subject |
everyday life |
| Measurements |
50.0 x 102 cm.0 cm (estimate) |
| Material |
oil on canvas |
| Acquisition Details |
Bequeathed by Noel Terry 1984. |
| Provenance |
Purchased by Noel Terry from the art dealer Sheridan in 1928. |
| Publications |
Brown, Peter, The Noel Terry Collection of Furniture and Clocks, York, 1987, p. 141, fig. 160. |
| Notes |
A dealer's note on the back, which we can assume to be Sheridan's, gives the information that ‘Examples of works [by this artist] to be found in all principal European Galleries'. Sheridan's note is very interesting, as it gives an insight into what the collector Noel Terry might have been attracted to in his art purchases. Certainly, with this painting, the fact that Teniers was a particularly well-known name - as Sheridan points out, his work is represented in galleries around Europe - suggests that Terry saw himself as a serious collector, on a par with the greatest connoisseurs of Dutch and Flemish art on the continent. |
| Rights Owner |
Fairfax House, York |
| Author |
Dr Ruth Stewart |
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