Circle Dance
David Teniers the Younger (Flemish, 1610-1690)
1635/68
- Medium
- Etching in black on cream laid paper
- Classification
- Dimensions
- 10.4 × 13.3 cm (4 1/8 × 5 1/4 in.)
- Culture
- Flanders
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Prints and Drawings
- Credit line
- The Wallace L. DeWolf and Joseph Brooks Fair Collections
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
The Antwerp artist David Teniers the Younger specialized in scenes of merrymaking peasants, a staple of Flemish art since the mid-16th century. Although many of his peasant scenes include a huge cast of characters, this etching depicts a more intimate gathering. Two couples have joined together in a circle, spinning and kicking their heels in the air. In this period, bagpipers often stood on barrels when playing for large crowds, but here the musician sits beside a companion. Teniers’s loose, seemingly nonchalant style fits well with this humble but animated subject matter.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
