(Antwerp 1582–1649) 

The Baptism of Christ in the River Jordan,
oil on panel, 86 x 111 cm, framed

We are grateful to Hans Vlieghe for confirming the attribution after examining the present painting in the original.

For a long time it had been difficult to clarify the oeuvre of David Teniers the Elder. His paintings were alternately given to Jacob Pynas, Pieter Lastman, Paul Bril, or often, Adam Elsheimer. The situation changed when Duverger and Vlieghe published their monograph (see E. Duverger and H. Vlieghe, David Teniers der Ältere. Ein vergessener flämischer Nachfolger Adam Elsheimers, Utrecht, 1971). In the past, the present painting was likewise attributed to Adam Elsheimer, who had been David Teniers the Elder’s teacher in Rome. However, the composition of the landscape and several individual motifs suggest that David Teniers the Elder is the author of the present work, although Elsheimer’s influence can still clearly be seen in the colour scheme and in individual pictorial elements.

Hans Vlieghe has pointed out that David Teniers the Elder’s account book did list a Baptism of Christ, but that it seems to have been a larger altarpiece. For the present painting, Vlieghe proposes a date of execution around 1615. Here Teniers has skilfully combined motifs in Elsheimer’s style and Italian elements with what seems like a Flemish landscape. The present Baptism of Christ was painted in Antwerp at a time when David Teniers the Younger was in his father’s workshop. It is therefore possible that he was involved in the picture’s execution.

Teniers the Elder had returned from Rome in 1606 and from that year on was registered as a member of the Guild of Saint Luke in Antwerp. He was also known as a successful art dealer. There is documentary evidence that he sold, among other paintings, his own works and those by his son at the Foire St. Germain in Paris in 1635.

We are grateful to Jan Kosten and to Ursula Härting, for having independently identified the artist.