Teniers, David (tənērz`, tĕn`yərz, Flemish tĕnērs`), the elder, 1582–1649, Flemish painter. He spent many years in Rome. Works attributed to him have often been confused with the early work of his famous son and pupil.

David Teniers, the younger, 1610–90, noted Flemish genre painter, worked with his father in Antwerp. His early works show the influence of Bruegel, the elder, his father-in-law. A protégé of Rubens, Teniers became court painter to the governor of the Netherlands and also worked for Philip IV of Spain. Heavily commissioned, he painted a prodigious number of small, very finished pictures. His favorite subjects were quiet scenes from peasant life. His subtle color and brilliant technique are unexcelled among the genre painters of his period. Among his well-known pictures are several versions of Flemish Kermess in the museums of Antwerp and Vienna and a version of The Alchemist in The Hague. The National Gallery, London, and the Prado have many examples of his work.

Teniers, David

(baptized Dec. 15, 1610, Antwerp, Belg.—died April 25, 1690, Brussels) Flemish painter. His father, also named David Teniers (1582–1649), was a painter of primarily religious subjects. The younger Teniers was highly prolific and is best known for his genre scenes of peasant life, many of which were used for tapestry designs in the 18th century. He was brilliant at handling crowd scenes in an open landscape and adept at characterizing his figures with a warm, human, and often humorous touch. As court painter to the archduke Leopold William, he also made many small-scale copies of paintings in the archduke's collection; engraved and published as Theatrum Pictorium (1660), they constitute a valuable source as a pictorial inventory of a great 17th-century collection.