(Antwerp 1610–1690 Brussels)
Peasants playing cards in a tavern,
signed lower right: D. Teniers and dated(in a drawing on the wall): 1670,
oil on canvas, 49.5 x 61.9 cm, framed

Provenance:
The Marquess of Ely;
his (anonymous) sale, London, with Mr. Stanley, 13th May 1830, lot 64 (for 140 Guineas to Emmerson);
Thomas Emmerson, 1831;
Graham Carfin (bears his label on the reverse);
Alexander Porter;
anonymous sale (“The Property of a Lady”), London, Christie’s, 1st August 1929, lot 31 (for 150 Guineas to Duits);
with Gebr. Douwes, Amsterdam, 1929;
Collection Reinhard Josephus Aloysius Dreesmann (1871-1957), Amsterdam;
thence by descent to his daughter, Margaretha Agnes Maria Feitz-Dreesmann (1909-1998), Lugano;
by whom posthumously sold (to benefit the Ineke Feitz Stichting), Christie’s, Amsterdam, 9th November 1998, lot 108;
with Richard Green, London;
sale, Sotheby´s, London, 7 December 2005, lot 25

Literature:
J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Most Eminent Dutch and Flemish Painters…, London 1831, p. 404, no. 538

The present painting belongs to a small group of dated works, all of which were executed from 1656 onwards, by when Teniers had settled in Brussels. After 1670 the artist rarely dated his paintings, so that the present composition seems to be a key work from his late maturity, as Margret Klinge remarks. Teniers contrived his compositional scheme at the very beginning of his career. Starting in the mid-1640s, Teniers took to painting tavern interiors, which essentially resemble each other in terms of composition and palette – an approach to which he would remain true until his later years.

David Teniers was so successful with his genre scenes that Archduke Leopold William, an important collector for whom he had worked since 1647, appointed him court painter in 1651.