Abraham Teniers

Abraham Teniers (1 March 1629 – 26 September 1670) was a Flemish painter and engraver who specialized in genre paintings of villages, inns and monkey scenes.

He was the son of the prominent genre painter David Teniers the Elder and Dymphna Cornelisse de Wilde (also called 'Dymphna Hendrikx').

[2][3] Three of his brothers were also painters: David the Younger (1610–90) who became the most successful of the Teniers painting dynasty, Juliaan III (1616–79) and Theodoor (1619–97).

[1] Abraham Teniers is mainly known for his genre scenes which depict themes and are executed in a style not dissimilar to those of his father and brother David who are his presumed teachers.

Guardroom scenes often included mercenaries and prostitutes dividing booty, harassing captives or indulging in other forms of reprehensible activities.

[11] Abraham Teniers contributed to the spread of the genre of the 'monkey scene', also called 'singerie' (a word, which in French means a 'comical grimace, behaviour or trick').

Later in the 17th century artists like Nicolaes van Verendael, principally known as a painter of flower still lifes started to paint 'monkey scenes' as well.

He was responsible for the publication of the Theatrum Pictorium ('Theatre of Paintings'), the project initiated by his brother David to make a set of engravings of the entire art collection of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm.