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David Teniers, the Younger (Antwerp 1610-1690 Brussels) Le déjeuner au jambon signed and dated 'DAVID TENIERS · FEC · / Ano 1648' (lower left), and dated '1648' (upper centre, on the drawing) oil on copper 25 x 33 5/8 in. (63.5 x 85.3 cm.)
Teniers’ brilliantly observed Déjeuner au jambon was painted in 1648, shortly after the artist had entered the service of Archduke Leopold William, Governor of the Southern Netherlands. It is executed on an impressively large copper plate, allowing for a high degree of finish, and is an excellent example of the tavern genre that Teniers developed during the 1630s, in which he quickly excelled. The painting has exceptional provenance, having been in some of the most important European collections of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, frequently being singled out by collectors and connoisseurs as a masterpiece by the artist. It was described by John Smith, in his Catalogue Raisonné, as ‘an example of the highest excellence in the several qualities for which the works of Teniers are so much esteemed’ (op. cit.). The painting showcases Teniers’ mastery of composition, his remarkable ability to capture a wide variety of characters and expressions in his figures, and his skill at rendering still life details. The artist was clearly pleased with the work, having included a self-portrait and the painting's execution date on the feigned print tacked to the wall in the centre as well as signing and dating the work at lower left.
Teniers’ early tavern scenes were strongly inspired by the pioneering example of his slightly older contemporary Adriaen Brouwer (1605-1638). Brouwer was working in Antwerp by 1631-2 and his rustic scenes of peasants and working-class figures engaged in riotous merry making, gambling and excess rapidly became popular and influential in the city. Initially, Teniers followed Brouwer’s example closely, using exaggerated caricatures, a limited palette and subdued light effects. However, by the late 1630s he had begun to adopt more naturalistic figure types, and to move away from the latter’s smoky, monochromatic tonality in favour of a clearer, more silvery atmosphere. By the mid-1640s, when this painting was executed, Teniers’ compositions were more sophisticated, his execution was more refined, and his patrons increasingly prestigious, most notable amongst them being Archduke Leopold William, to whom he became official court painter in 1650.
Teniers has cleverly divided the composition of this painting in two by employing an ‘L’ shape design to create a shallower space in the left foreground, where figures are gathered around the eponymous supper of ham, and a deeper space to the right, where figures can be seen dancing and merry making in the background. While Brouwer had painted tavern scenes with his figures similarly divided into groups between the foreground and the background, as in his Interior of a Tavern (London, Dulwich Picture Gallery), Teniers’ composition is more complex, incorporating many more figures, and the separation of the two spaces is more clearly defined. Furthermore, Teniers’ use of an ‘L’ shape design has enabled him to combine two distinct subjects - a peasant gathering and a scene of revelry and dancing. The former evolved from Brouwer and the latter inspired by the work of Pieter Bruegel the Elder and his son, Pieter Brueghel the Younger. Other works which combine these two subjects in this way include a panel, also dated 1648, now in the Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe. In a slightly earlier panel, painted in 1645, these subjects are reversed, with the dancing figures brought into the foreground and the more subdued dinners pushed into the background (Munich, Alte Pinakothek).
As Teniers’ treatment of tavern scenes and rural, peasant life became more refined, he began to pay more attention to the still life elements in his work, as exemplified by the beautifully rendered collection of cop