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The Chaff-cutter
David Teniers the YoungerBefore 1690
Dulwich Picture Gallery
London, United Kingdom
"This charming depiction of the work in a Flemish farmyard is in the typical style of Teniers' genre production. The subject of chaff-cutting, however, seems to be quite rare in Netherlandish painting, with only two other examples currently recorded, both by the Dutch artist Caspar Netscher (1635/39-1684).
It has been suggested that the other chaff-cutting scenes may represent an allegorical reference to the saying 'to separate the wheat from the chaff' (to separate the good from the bad), but there is no evidence to indicate that a similar moral or proverbial meaning could apply also to Teniers' canvas."
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Details
- Title: The Chaff-cutter
- Creator Lifespan: 1610 - 1690
- Date: Before 1690
- Physical Dimensions: w841 x h586 cm
- Type: Painting
- Medium: Oil
- Work Notes: Unlikely to be ?London, Christie's, Desenfans private sale, 8 Apr. 1786, lot 74 as suggested by Murray.
- Work Nationality: Flemish
- Support: Canvas
- Provenance: Charles James Fox; Richard Walker; his sale, London, Christie's, 4 Mar. 1803, lot 7 ('A Flemish Farm Yard with the White Horse, one of the finest silver-toned Pictures of this Master'). Bt Bourgeois for £115.10; London, Noel Desenfans and/or Sir Francis Bourgeois, 1803-1807: 1804 Insurance List no. 39; London, Sir Francis Bourgeois, 1807-1811; Bourgeois Bequest, 1811.
- Inscriptions: D. TENIERS F.
- Further Information: "The Chaff-cutter" portrays a scene of 17th century peasant life. The man is cutting straw into fine pieces (known as chaff, which is commonly used as fodder for livestock) most likely for the white horse in the picture. A saddle bag on the ground indicates that this is a working horse, and that the man may have just returned from a journey on horseback. The horse is already grazing on some hay. We see chicken, a key source of sustenance for the peasants, wandering around in the foreground. Birds nesting in the dovecote may have been kept for their flesh and eggs. Teniers was known for his paintings of peasant scenes and this is an example of an illustration of rural life, highlighting the strong interdependence between man and beast.
- Artist: Teniers, David the younger
- Acquisition Method: Bourgeois, Sir Peter Francis (Bequest, 1811)
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