David Teniers le Jeune

Comte d'Abingdon (selon une inscription sur le montage)

Attached to the mount with an old paper hinge, down left side of sheet. Some pale staining and surface dirt throughout. Top corners made up. Lower right corner creased. Medium itself good and strong. Sold in a modern frame.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This dynamic sheet is a study for the two central figures in the foreground of Teniers' major 1652 painting, The Shooting of the Bird in Brussels, now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.¹  This large and elaborate painting records the crowds gathered in the square before the church of Nôtre Dame des Sablons, in Brussels, for the annual festival of the archers' guild, on 23 April 1651. That year the Archduke Leopold Wilhelm, Regent of the Southern Netherlands, was chosen to perform the ceremonial duty of shooting at a bird suspended from the spire of the church, which he duly hit with his arrow. The Archduke seems to have taken the painting with him when he returned to Vienna in 1656.  

The two opulently dressed figures standing prominently in the foreground, for whom this is a study, have not been identified, but must have been specific local gentlemen.  A sheet of studies for the boys climbing trees to get a better view of the events is in the collection of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris.²

¹  Inv 756; David Teniers der Jüngere, exh. cat., Karlsruhe, Staatlichen Kunsthalle, 2005-6, pp. 174-7. no. 87  

²  Inv. no. M 602; Ibid., pp. 262-3, no. 83