Artist: David Teniers The Elder
Date: 1675
Size: 33 x 29 cm
Technique: Oil On Panel
This work is painted on a support of a single piece of oak timber, from a tree grown in the west German/Netherlandish region, which would have been ready for use from 1623. Although not seen here at his best, there could be no reason to doubt Teniers’s authorship of this work, which is to be dated according to Klinge to the mid-1670s.7 The handling can be compared to that in the Inn Scene of 1680 from the Duschnitz collection.8 The diminution in quality is accounted for by the fact that Teniers was now in his seventies. Depicted is a seated mason watched by four companions in an inn, smoking. The mason’s trade of the main protagonist is clearly indicated by the tools – mallet, chisel, hammer and trowel – on the floor. It is unusual for Teniers to make such a specific allusion particularly in his tavern scenes. Whether the artist had in mind any wider reference or meaning other than anecdotal is unclear. He had depicted figures smoking for the whole of his career; by this time it was no longer considered a disreputable practice.9 Gregory Martin, 2022
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