David Teniers the Younger

Believed by the mother of the present owner to have been in her family for over two hundred years.

The following condition report has been provided by Hamish Dewar, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. Structural Condition The copper support is secure and stable with no evidence of structural intervention in the past. Paint surface The paint surface has a very discoloured varnish layer and a considerable amount of surface dirt and would undoubtedly respond extremely well to cleaning and revarnishing. I would be confident of a considerable colour change and a great improvement in the overall appearance. There is some slight rubbing around the framing edges and very small retouchings which are predominately around the framing edges covering frame abrasion. There are also a few very small touches on the armour in the foreground and a scratch in the upper left corner which is visible in the catalogue photograph and is approximately 2 cm in length. Summary The painting would therefore appear to be in very good and stable condition and should be transformed by cleaning and revarnishing.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

This previously unrecorded work by Teniers has been in the same French family collection since the early 19th century or earlier.  Like most of Teniers' guardroom interiors, it is likely to date from the 1640s, circa 1642-47, and like many of them, it is on copper.

Teniers has clearly portrayed his own likeness in the features of the standing officer dressed up to the nines in an exotic fur-trimmed coat and fur hat with plume.  We see him at almost exactly the same age in a self-portrait with his family of 1645-6, sold in these Rooms, 9 July 2008, lot 23.¹ 

Subjects such as this gave him full-reign to show off.  His self-portrait within this picture may be seen as the Flemish equivalent of the tronie, or fancy-dress portrait, then at the peak of its fashion in Holland.  Furthermore, the guardroom accoutrements - pieces of armour, a helmet lavishly trimmed with feathers of many colours, flags, banners and a saddle dressed in red cloth trimmed with gold braid - gave him ample opportunity to demonstrate his virtuosity as a painter of still life.  Many of these elements occur in two guardroom interiors of upright format on canvas (possibly once pendants), both from circa 1646, in Chicago and Dulwich.²

We are grateful to Margret Klinge for endorsing the attribution upon first-hand inspection, and for confirming the dating to the mid-1640s. Frau Klinge is aware of two later copies, both in English collections.

1. See M. Klinge, David Teniers the Younger, exhibition catalogue, Antwerp 1991, pp. 128-9, no. 39, reproduced (see also the example in Berlin; idem, pp. 126-7, no. 38, reproduced).
2. Chicago, The Art Institute, inv. no. 1894.1029; Dulwich Picture Gallery, inv. no. 54; see M. Klinge, in M. Klinge & D. Lüdke, David Teniers der Jüngere 1610-1690, exhibition catalogue, Karlsruhe 2005, p. 172, no. 40, reproduced (Chicago), & under no. 40, reproduced fig. 40/a (Dulwich).