The Guardhouse

The Guardhouse

David Teniers the Younger, c. 1645

Download free · 1686 × 2207px View on a wall Edit

Artist: David Teniers the Younger (Flemish, 1610–1690)
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 72.6 × 55.4 cm (28 9/16 × 21 13/16 in.); Framed: 87 × 69.9 × 5.1 cm (34 1/4 × 27 1/2 × 2 in.)
Museum: Art Institute of Chicago
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

The versatile Flemish painter David Teniers turned to military paraphernalia as the subject of his still lifes in the mid-1640s, as the long conflict of the Thirty Years’ War was drawing to a close. Here soldiers play cards in the dim interior of a guardhouse, while a page carries the officers’ cloaks. However, the chief subject of the work is the pile of discarded armor, weaponry, and parade gear—a saddle, musket, powder horn, charging spanner, and gauntlets—in the immediate foreground. In treating armor as a still-life subject, Teniers followed the precedent of Jan Breughel the Elder, whose daughter he had married.

Text: Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0.

More by David Teniers the Younger

Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in his Gallery in Brussels

Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in his Gallery in Brussels

David Teniers the Younger, c. 1651

Bird Shoot in Brussels

Bird Shoot in Brussels

David Teniers the Younger, 1650s

Saint Mary Magdalen in Penitence

Saint Mary Magdalen in Penitence

David Teniers the Younger, 1634

Landscape with Gypsies

Landscape with Gypsies

David Teniers the Younger, 1641–1645

Neptune and Amphitrite

Neptune and Amphitrite

David Teniers the Younger, 1645

Latona and the Frogs

Latona and the Frogs

David Teniers the Younger, 1640s

Temptation of St. Anthony

Temptation of St. Anthony

David Teniers the Younger, 1634

Venus and Cupid

Venus and Cupid

David Teniers the Younger, 1656

Monkey Trick

David Teniers the Younger

Diana and Callisto

Diana and Callisto

David Teniers the Younger, c. 1656

Archduke Leopold Wilhelm, with the Siege of Gravelingen in the background

Archduke Leopold Wilhelm, with the Siege of Gravelingen in the background

David Teniers the Younger, 1652

Bohémiens

David Teniers the Younger, c. 1650

Visually similar

A Guardroom

David Teniers the Younger

Interior of a guardroom

Interior of a guardroom

David Teniers the Younger, 1635–1645

History Painting with self-portrait

History Painting with self-portrait

Rembrandt, 1626

Magnus Stenbock Surrenders the Fortress of Tønningen to Frederik IV in 1714

Magnus Stenbock Surrenders the Fortress of Tønningen to Frederik IV in 1714

Nicolai Abildgaard, 1785

A Guard Room

David Teniers the Younger, 1640s

The messenger

Gerard ter Borch, 1653

Soldiers Playing Dice

Soldiers Playing Dice

David Teniers the Younger

A Guardroom Interior with Soldiers Smoking and Playing Cards

A Guardroom Interior with Soldiers Smoking and Playing Cards

Gerard ter Borch, c. 1640

Satire on a Nobleman in Misery

Satire on a Nobleman in Misery

Alessandro Magnasco, 1719

The Drummer

David Teniers the Younger, 1647

Intérieur de corps de garde

Intérieur de corps de garde

Pieter Codde, 1626–1678

The Armorer's Shop

The Armorer's Shop

David Teniers the Younger, 1642