David Teniers (Flemish: 1610-1694). See 154.
So the picture is usually called, but the subject seems rather to be a pilgrimage to some holy shrine or miraculous well. A cross is seen on the right; the priest in charge of the pilgrimage stands somewhat lower down; on the left is a man selling little memorial flags with crosses on them. The hungry travellers are waiting for the meal which is being prepared for them in several huge cauldrons. The town of Antwerp is seen in the distance. This picture, dated 1643, is among the best works of Teniers, and includes 150 figures. "Truth in physiognomy, distribution of groups, the beautiful effect of light and shade, command," says Hymans, "our warmest admiration." In the foreground are Teniers and his party, with his little boy leading a greyhound, and the girl of this party is almost the only pleasant face in the picture. The painter, one begins to suspect, had not much real sympathy with his "village scenes" after all; and perhaps the demand for such scenes on the part of his aristocratic patrons was only a kind of vicarious "slumming"—an anticipation of the fashionable craze of a later age.
953. THE TOPER.
David Teniers (Flemish: 1610-1694). See 154.
This picture is signed with a T. within a D., which is the signature of the elder Teniers.
But, lo, a Teniers woos, and not in vain,
Your eyes to revel in a livelier sight:
His bell-mouth'd goblet makes one feel quite Danish,
Or Dutch, with thirst—what, ho! a flask of Rhenish.—Byron.
954. A LANDSCAPE.
Cornelis Huysmans (Flemish: 1648-1727).
This painter, whose pictures have for the most part become very dark, was born at Antwerp, the son of an architect. He studied the art of landscape under Jacques d'Arthois at Brussels, by which master we are told he was kept so closely to drawing that he could only practise painting by night. He took up his abode at Mechlin; but in 1702 removed to Antwerp, returning, however, to Mechlin fourteen years later. Favourable examples of his work may be seen at the Louvre.