The Armorer's Shop

Artist David Teniers the Younger Flemish, 1610–1690

Artistand Attributed to Jan Brueghel the Younger Flemish, 1601–1678

Datecirca 1640–1645

MediumOil on panel

Dimensions22 1/4 x 31 3/4 in. (56.5 x 80.6 cm)
Frame: 31 x 40 1/2 in. (78.7 x 102.9 cm)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the State of North Carolina

Object number52.9.116

On View

On view

ProvenanceCreated Antwerp, Flanders [present day Belgium], ca. 1640–1645. Philippe-François de Mérode (1669–1742), 2nd Prince of Rubempré; Rubempré estate; [his sale, P. de Bast, Brussels, April 11, 1765, no. 46, as by Teniers, bought in?]; [his sale, Brussels, Gilles de Bel, August 8, 1766), no. 15, as by Teniers. Edmund Higginson (1803–after 1860), Saltmarshe Castle, Herefordshire, England, before 1842 [2]; [his sale, Christie & Manson, London, June 4–6, 1846, no. 144, as The Armourer, by Teniers] [1]. Probably Chapman Walker. Probably Humphrey Ward (1845–1926), Oxford, England. Edmond Noël, Paris; [his sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, May 27, 1924, no. 23, as L’Armurier, by Teniers]; [Paul Durand-Ruel, Paris and New York]; Martin A. Ryerson (1856–1932), Chicago, 1924; lent to Art Institute of Chicago, 1924- 1933; bequeathed to Art Institute of Chicago, 1933 [3]; deaccessioned by Art Institute of Chicago, 1947; [E. and A. Silberman Galleries, New York, 1947]; sold to NCMA, 1952.

[1] There was a second Higginson sale, run by Christie, Manson & Woods, London on June 16, 1860. No copy of the catalogue has been located in order to verify whether this painting appeared in the second Higginson sale.
[2] Purchased for Higginson by “Mr. Arteria.”
Published References“Catalogue d’une fameuse collection de tableaux de différens maîtres François, Italiens, Flamands & Hollandois” (auction catalogue) (Brussels: P. de Bast, April 11, 1765), lot 46, as by Teniers.

“Catalogue d’une fameuse collection de tableaux de différens maîtres François, Italiens, Flamands” (auction catalogue) (Brussels: Gilles de Bel, August 8, 1766), lot 15, as by Teniers.

A descriptive catalogue of the gallery of pictures collected by Edmund Higginson, Esq., of Saltmarshe (London: printed for private distribution, 1842), no. 92, as The Armourer, by Teniers.

John Smith, Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters, Vol. 9 (London: Messrs. Smith, 1842), 471-72, no. 213.

“Catalogue of the very important collection of pictures, the property of Edmund Higginson, Esq., of Saltmarshe, Herefordshire” (auction catalogue) (London: Christie & Manson, June 4-6, 1846), lot 144, as The Armourer, by Teniers.

C. Blanc, Le Trésor de la Curiosité, Vol. 1 (Paris: 1857), 124.

“Catalogue des tableaux anciens…composant la collection de M. Edmond Noël” (auction catalogue) (Paris: Galerie Georges Petit, May 27, 1924), lot 23, as L’Armurier, by Teniers, illus. (b-w).

S[tephen] V[incent] Grancsary, "Arms and Armor in Paintings by David Teniers the Younger," The Journal of the Walters Art Gallery 9 (1946), 29-40, illus. 28, fig. 4.

W. R. Valentiner, "The Raleigh Museum's First 200 paintings: Notes on the Collection," Art News 55, no. 2 (April 1956), 51, illus.

W. R. Valentiner, Catalogue of Paintings: Including Three Sets of Tapestries (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1956), no. 140, illus. (b-w).

Jane P. Davidson, David Teniers the Younger (Boulder: Westview Press, 1979), 19.

Introduction to the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1992), illus (b-w) 120.

M. Klinge, "David Teniers der Jüngere als Zeichner. Die Antwerpener Schaffenszeit (1633-1651)," in Jaarboek van het Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten (Antwerp: Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, 1997), 123, 238, illus. (b-w) 121.

Dennis Weller, entry for The Armorer's Shop, in North Carolina Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections, Rebecca Martin Nagy, ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1998), 87, 94, illus. (color) 94.

Joanna Kikissis, "New respect for an old master," The News and Observer (October 13, 2002), 3G (as The Armour Shop).

Margret Klinge and Dietmar Lüdke, David Teniers der Jungere 1610-1690: Alltag und Vergnugen in Flandern (Heidelberg : Kehrer, 2005), 75, illus. (b-w) fig. 18.

Sylvain Boyer, et al., Peintures flamandes, hollandaises et allemandes du Musée Calvet, Avignon: catalogue raisonné (Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux; Avignon: Fondation Calvet, 2006), 61-62.

Noelle Ocon, "David Teniers the Younger and Jan Brueghel the Younger: Partnership or Pastiche?" in Knights in Shining Armor: Myth and Reality, 1450-1650, Ida Sinkevi?, ed., (Piermont, NH: Bunker Hill Publishing in association with Allentown Art Museum, 2006), 74-81, illus. (color, color detail, infrared, x-radiograph) throughout; also mentioned 17, 19, illus. (color) 18 and detail (color) front and back endpapers.

"Fraud or frugal? The X-rays shed new light," in New Scientist 196, no. 2631, discussed and illus. (color) 30.

Dennis P. Weller, Seventeenth-Century Dutch and Flemish Paintings [Systematic Catalogue of the Collection] (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 2009), cat. no. 73, illus. (color) 352.

Dennis P. Weller, entry for The Armorer's Shop, in North Carolina Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 2010), 198, illus. (color) 199.

Paraskevi Vlachaki, "Revealing the Secrets of Artwork: The Case of the Painting 'The Armorer's Shop' and the Role of Science in the work of the Art Historian" (Thesis, School of Fine Arts, Athens, 2020), illus. (color) 8, fig. 2.
Exhibition HistoryChicago, IL, Chicago Art Institute, The Martin Ryerson Collection, 1924-33.

Atlanta, GA, High Museum of Art, “European and American Masterpieces,” 1949.

West Palm Beach, FL, Norton Gallery and School of Art, “Baroque Paintings of the 16th-18th Centuries and Dutch Masters of the 17th Century,” 1949, cat. no. 6.

New Orleans, LA, Isaac Delgado Museum of Art, “Five Centuries of European Art,” 1950.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, Mary Duke Biddle Education Gallery, “Objects of Delight: Still Lifes from the Permanent Collection,” October 5, 1990-June 16, 1991.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, “Face to Face with the Dutch Golden Age,” December 20, 1995-May 26, 1996.

Allentown, PA, Allentown Art Museum, "Arms and Armor in Renaissance and Baroque Art," January 28-June 17, 2007.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," October 7, 2022–present. Object Rights Statement

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