Cow and Goat Herds
Brussels
Category
Tapestries
Date
circa 1720 - circa 1740
Materials
Tapestry, wool and silk, 8 warps per cm
Measurements
3.55 m (H); 2.95 m (W)
Place of origin
Belgium
Order this imageCollection
Blickling Hall, Norfolk
NT 355774.4
Summary
Tapestry, wool and silk, 8 warps per cm, Cow and Goat Herds from a set of four Teniers Tapestries, Brussels, c. 1720-1740. In the right foreground two women sit by a tree with a basket of flowers, one holding a large pitcher and the other fending off a man in a blue cap who tries to grope her breast. To the left two children sit on the ground playing with a goat and a kid. Behind the foreground figures a raggedly dressed man leans on the back of a brown cow playing a tin whistle, and two more cows stand nearby. In the background is a tumbledown cottage with a thatched roof among the trees. The tapestry has narrow borders imitating veined blue marbles frames with scrolling gold decoration at the corners and in the centre of each side, and a narrow band with a twisted-ribbon pattern in red running along the inside edge. The borders have been partially re-attached but are original to the tapestry..
Full description
The design of 'Cow and Goat Herds' is relatively rare in sets of 'Teniers' tapestries. A virtually identical panel appeared as part of a set of six tapestries in the Bedgebury sale (Knight, Frank and Rutley, 12-19 May 1919; part of the set sold again Christie's 8 July 1926; Hans Lange, Berlin, 8 February 1939). The Bedgebury set was not signed and had a border similar although not identical to the set at Blickling. One panel from the Bedgebury set, a 'Village Fair', is now in the National Trust's collection at Nostell Priory, having been bought in 1919 to replace a tapestry from an existing set at Nostell that was destroyed by fire (no. 960144.5). The huge popularity of so-called 'Teniers' tapestries was one of the most striking trends in eighteenth-century European tapestry production. First woven in Brussels after designs by David II Teniers, the genre gained in popularity so rapidly that by the early eighteenth century Teniers tapestries were being woven in major weaving centres in France, England and even Spain as well as the Netherlands. The tapestries take their name from David II Teniers (1610-1690), a painter known for his peasant scenes, especially his views of village fairs with peasants dancing and drinking usually by a country inn. Teniers's paintings were notable for their positive portrayal of his subjects, which contrasted with his predecessors who had tended to represent the peasants in a satirical light. While many of the tapestries include comic elements such as the man pissing into a pile of hay at Blickling, the men and women are presented as essentially honest and rustic rather than dangerously unruly. It is this simple, almost Arcadian vision of rural life that holds the key to the success of the 'Teniers' tapestries. Despite his association with the 'Teniers' tapestries David II Teniers only ever designed one tapestry series, for his patron Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria in around 1660. The series included subjects that were to be the core of later 'Teniers' series: a 'Village Fair', a 'Return from Harvest', a 'Milking Scene', a 'Gypsy Fortune Teller', 'Pig Killing (Winter)', 'Fish Quay', 'Shepherds Resting' and 'Hunters Resting'. Teniers's original series was still being woven in the 1680s, but by this time new sets were being created inspired not just by Teniers's tapestries, but by his paintings and prints we well. It is also possible that Tenier's son, David III Teniers (1638-1685), was in some way involved in the spread of his father's style, as he worked extensively as a tapestry designer. A number of different artists were commissioned to make new designs in Teniers's style, for example the papers of the Brussels entrepreneur Pieter van der Borcht mention 'Teniers tapestries painted by the famous Mr Michau'. In 1709 the dealer Marcus Forchoudt, when asked to supply a set for the Prince of Lichtenstein, replied that "I am worried that not so many patterns will be available which are either original Teniers, or from his school of peasant scenes by good painters." (Delmarcel 1999, pp. 352-6). A number of prominent commissions for 'Teniers' tapestries attest to the growing demand for the genre, including a set made for Prince Rupert of Bavaria in 1693, another made for King William III before 1700, and a commission from the Duke of Marlborough in 1709 for 'Teniers' tapestries to hang his private apartments at Blenheim (Delmarcel 1999, pp. 352-6). All the major Brussels entrepreneurs produced 'Teniers' tapestries, sometimes in large numbers – for example Judocus de Vos had no less than three sets on his books. The Brussels workshops often collaborated on the production, and cartoons were also shared between workshops, so that the attribution of individual sets that are not signed, like the set at Blickling, is often impossible (Brosens 2004, passim; Brosens 2008, pp. 191-8). Based on their style and quality the tapestries at Blickling were probably made in Brussels, and the decoration on the borders dates the set to c. 1720-1740. Two 'Teniers' tapestries with the same blue marble borders as the Blickling set were in the Vernon-Westworth sale, Christie's, 20 November 1919, and sold again Lord Waring at Christie's, 28 June 1934, two of which were signed 'IDV' for the Brussels entrepreneur Judocus de Vos (1661-1734). It is therefore possible that the tapestries at Blickling were also made by de Vos, especially since the design of 'The Return from Harvest' at Blickling relates to tapestries of the same subject signed by him. A number of other single pieces are recorded with the same borders, but no signature, including a set formerly at Wolterton Hall, Norfolk, and four individual tapestries that passed through the dealers French and Company in New York in the early twentieth century (Getty Photo Archive nos. 0239685, 0184858, 0239770, 0239719). Within the National Trust collection there are Teniers tapestries at Uppark (a set of four signed by Urbanus and Daniel Leyniers, no. 138442), Chastleton (a 'Country Dance', no. 1430618), Nostell Priory (a made-up set of five, part signed by Pieter van der Borcht, no. 960144), and Lanhydrock (a 'Kermesse', no. 885486). By 1899 all four tapestries hung in 'Lady Lothian's Sanctum', today known as Conference Room 1. The tapestries were in the same location in 1930 but by 1948 one had been removed. The three remaining tapestries were hung in their present location in the Lower Ante Room in 1960 by the National Trust. (Helen Wyld, 2011)
Provenance
Bequeathed with the hall and contents to the National Trust by Philip, 11th Marquess of Lothian (1882-1940)
Credit line
Blickling Hall, The Lothian Collection (The National Trust)
Makers and roles
Brussels , workshop possibly Judocus de Vos (1661-1734), workshop style of David Teniers the younger (Antwerp 1610 - Brussels 1690), designer
References
Delmarcel, 2010: Guy Delmarcel, ‘The Flemish Tapestries’, in Guy Delmarcel, Nicole de Reyniès and Wendy Hefford, The Toms Collection Tapestries of the Sixteenth to Nineteenth Centuries, Zürich 2010, pp. 25-157 Brosens, 2008: Koenraad Brosens, European Tapestries in the Art Institute of Chicago, New Haven and London 2008 Brosens, 2004: Koenraad Brosens, A Contextual Study of Brussels Tapestry, 1670-1770. The Dye Works and Tapestry Workshop of Urbanus Leyniers (1674-1747), Brussels 2004 Delmarcel, 1999: Guy Delmarcel, Flemish Tapestry, Tielt 1999 Campbell, 1995: Thomas Campbell, 'The return of the Uppark tapestries: a triumph of transatlantic co-operation', Apollo, vol. 141, no. 398 (1995), pp. 32-36 Klinge, 1991: M. Klinge, David Teniers the Younger, exh. cat. Antwerp, 1991 Marillier, 1932: Henry C Marillier, Handbook to the Teniers Tapestries, London 1932