Guardroom Scene with African Soldier Cleaning Pistols
Attribution
Abraham Teniers
(Flemish, 1629 - 1670)
Previous Attribution
David Teniers the Younger
(Flemish, 1610 - 1690)
Dateca. 1650-1665
MediumOil on panel
Dimensions19 3/4 × 27 3/4 in. (50.2 × 70.5 cm)
Overall, Frame: 27 1/4 × 35 in. (69.2 × 88.9 cm)
Overall, Frame: 27 1/4 × 35 in. (69.2 × 88.9 cm)
ClassificationsEuropean art
Credit LineMuseum purchase
Object number2020.7
On View
On viewLabel TextAbraham Teniers Netherlandish, 1629–1670 Guardroom Scene with African Soldier Cleaning Pistols, ca. 1650–65 Oil on panel The man in the foreground of this seventeenthcentury guardroom scene is looking up from cleaning pistols. Who is he? There are very few portraits of African men in Flemish art, but foreign soldiers had been a common sight in Flanders for a long time. This painting was likely made just after the end of nearly eighty years of religious war between Spanish-controlled Catholic Flanders and neighboring Protestant Holland. This was a war funded on both sides through colonization, plunder, and slavery. Museum purchase 2020.7
18th century
18th century
No Date
1762-1763
1762-1763