David The Younger Teniers

Baptized Dec. 15, 1610, in Antwerp; died Apr. 25,1690, in Brussels. Flemish painter.

Teniers studied under his father, David Teniers the Elder. In 1651 he moved to Brussels, where he became court artist and curator of Archduke Leopold William’s picture gallery. He founded the Antwerp Academy of Arts in 1665.

Teniers’ numerous and diverse works include genre scenes, religious pictures, humorous scenes with monkeys, and portraits. His technique, known for its light, silvery tonalities, is masterful, although at times affectedly painstaking in style. Teniers’ landscapes, such as Mountain Landscape (1640; the Hermitage, Leningrad), are noted for their subtle rendering of light and air. Especially typical of Teniers’ works are idealized scenes of peasant life, such as The Village Fête (1646) and Peasant Wedding (1652), both of which are housed in the Hermitage.