David Teniers the Younger

David Teniers

Early career

David Teniers, The younger, was born on 15th December 1610 in Antwerp. He was the son of David Teniers the elder and Dymphna De Wilde. His father was a painter of altarpieces and small-scale cabinet paintings. Three of David's brothers are painters, and the works of his two brothers are unknown. Abraham, who was the youngest brother of David's works, was very close to David's. From 1626 David learned from his father and collaborated with his father in his early days to create a series of twelve panels. His father was poor and in debt that landed him in jail occasionally—David the younger used to make copies of his old masters to earn money.

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Mature period

David married Anna Brueghel, the famous Brueghel artist family's daughter, in 1637. Ruben was Anna Brueghel's guardian after her father's death; they both developed a close friendship together. Ruben was a good friend and frequent collaborator of Anna's father. Around that time, David was an established artist and received many commissions. In 1643 a local militia in Antwerp commissioned a group of portraits. David was a Dean of the Antwerp guild of Saint Luke.

Around 1650, David moved to Brussels to go into the service of the Archduke as a court painter. The Archduke asked him to be a keeper of the art gallery, and he gave him a place in his palace. He succeeded Jan can den Hoecke, who was the Antwerp painter and worked in Vienna for Archduke. The key work of David was to look after and enlarge the archducal collection. David put together so many artworks to the gallery from which some of his work and other artists he selected. He was also involved in the purchase of many Italian masterpieces from the collections of Charles-I of England.

One of his great successes was acquiring 400 paintings of a collection owned by the 1st Duke of Hamilton. The Conde de acting as Leopold, Wilhelm's lieutenant also sent David to England in 1651 to buy paintings at the Pembroke and other places. The collection of Archduke increased, and it was about a collection of 1300 works. This collection was mainly of Italian artists such as Titian, Raphael, and Giorgione. Among that, 15 works by Titan were alone in the collection also some of the famous northern artists.

The Archduke promoted David by giving his artworks to other European rulers as presents. Many of the rulers loved David's works, except the king of France. According to a story, the France king didn't like the peasant scene by David and asked it to be removed from his sight. Later on, David brought a house near the Brussels court and was promoted to Camerdiender in 1655 by the Archduke. It was unusual for a painter to work in this position. After the resignation of Archduke from his position as governor-general, the next governor-general continued to support the work of David.

Later years

In 1656 David's wife died, and he got married again to Isabella de Fren. It is suggested that the main motive behind marrying Isabella is to get a promotion in society as Isabella's father was the secretary of the council in Brabant. The couple had four children. As a court painter, David was not allowed to become a member of the local guild. But he became a member of the Brussels Guild of Saint Luke in 1675. In his final years, David's second wife died, and he was involved in lawsuits over here estate. Then on 25th April, David died.