Harriet Greenberg at the Zena Mill, NY circa 1956.
The thing is, I included the woodstock link in hopes to inspire folks to design their web pages primarily for the down-swipe on a cell phone, no words of more than one syllable, no more than six words for the headline, a maximum of 25 words to the entire paragraph.
I think the store shown here is well-stocked and interestingly furnished. It’s a shop I’d have been likely to wander into now and again, if I still lived there.
The fact is that living anywhere in the world, I can see into that shop and determine whether I want to go further with inquiry or a purchase.
I got there by clicking around on a google map, more or less taking the same walking route that I would walk as a youngster, from the Zena Mill to Woodstock, where I’d have a Saturday morning class with Paul Wesley Arndt or another of the many resident artists who taught kids for free, at the country club, every weekend, back in the 1950s.
https://youtu.be/jXMQ2LbQl6U
Okay, now let’s take a look at the opportunity of a lifetime:
David Teniers Oil on Canvas
Was this painted by David Teniers the Younger? Perhaps, or by one of his apprentices, but in any case, it could only have been painted in his studio and nowhere else — it’s impossible to determine which of several examples was the first and which were the copies, but Teniers turned out paintings like some artists produce prints — by the dozen, and this “Smoker” is one of them.
There were no color photos back then, nor could it have been copied in a museum. The date of painting is certain, somewhere around 1655, so it could only have been done at the studio, where the “original” was available.
It takes a few days to a few weeks to do a copy like this, and can sometimes take longer, so the painter had to have continual access to the “original” from which this was copied.
Often the copies will have one or two details that are differently painted, but it’s all within the scope of generating paintings that can be sold again and again, and that means making copies of copies of copies.
David Teniers, the son of the painter David Teniers the Elder, was born in Antwerp in 1610. His father was his first and principal teacher in painting.
While David Teniers the Elder had been unsuccessful and was even put into debtors’ prison, Teniers the Younger became known all over Europe.
In the early 1630s Teniers the Younger became close with Brouwer, who was of great influence on him. At that period he worked in Antwerp, where, in 1632, be became member of St. Lukas Guild, and, in 1645, was elected its deacon.
In 1637, he married a daughter of Reuben’s friend, “Velvet Brueghel”. The dowry was serious, and the marriage brought Teniers into the circle of acquaintances of the great master Brueghel.
In 1651, the Teniers family moved to Brussels, where he had been appointed a court painter and the director of the art gallery of the Spanish governor-general, Archduke Leopold-Wilhelm.
He was a founding member of the Antwerp Academy of Art (1663). Very productive master, he left more than 2000 works and had great success with Flemish aristocracy. He followed fashion and whims of his clients.
He was a profuse painter, and often produced dozens of slightly different versions of the same basic pieces, taken from his pencil drawings in the field. He war particularly fond of painting bar scenes — one can only imagine why.
He painted everything: genre pictures, still lifes, animals, scenes of hunt, landscapes, portraits, religious scenes and allegorical subjects. One of his early works Members of Antwerp Town Council and Masters of the Armaments Guild is a rare example of group portrait in Flemish art.
His multiple pictures of scenes of popular Flemish life, painted in attractive shades of blue, red, cream and grey, with light effects and transparent shadows, are much influenced by Brouwer. Twelfth Night (The King Drinks). Kitchen Scene. Peasants Dancing outside an Inn. etc.
His Art Gallery of Leopold-Wilhelm pictures precisely documented the famous works from archduke’s collection. Teniers also made small-scale copies of 246 pictures from this collection, a visual record which helped to retrace the fate of some long-lost masterpieces.
Teniers’ works were very popular during the 18th century and all the Royal houses of Europe were quick to buy them. One of the best collections is in The Hermitage.
Back of the painting reveals 17th century frame construction — this is the original frame, built around 1655.
Label on back of frame.
Detail of 400 year old textile surface with markings.
Detail of corner bracings of original 17th century framework.
Detail of central figure, a tobacco user wearing a hat and smoking a long clay pipe.
I have this piece in my dining space — it’s just amazing to have a piece from the Dutch Masters, right within easy reach. What a way to add to whatever enjoyment you might get out of life, and what a wonderful way to create a Time-Binder Effect with the world of the Dutch Masters.
I would be willing to discuss price with any serious collector of Dutch & Flemish Masters.
