? Commissioned by friar Antoon (1648-84), David Teniers’s II son, for the Franciscan friary in Mechelen{J.B. Descamps, _La vie des peintres flamands, allemands et hollandois, avec des portraits_, 4 vols., Paris 1753-64, II, 1754, p. 158; for Teniers’s son Antoon, see P. Rombouts and T. van Lerius, _De Liggeren en andere historische archieven der Antwerpsche Sint Lucasgilde, ondere zinspreuk: ‘Wt Ionsten Versaemt’_, 2 vols., Antwerp/The Hague 1864-76 (reprint Amsterdam 1961), II, p. 385; Vlieghe in _Nationaal Biografisch Woordenboek_, Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie van België voor Wetenschappen en Kunsten, 21- vols., Brussels 1964-, IV, p. 810; and S. Schoutens, _Kunstschilders beeldhouwers en bouwkundigen der minderbroedersorde in België_, Antwerp 1903, p. 13, note 1. Margret Klinge kindly provided his date of baptism, and his date of death (1684) in Mechelen; see also H. Vlieghe, _David Teniers (1610-1690): A Biography_, Turnhout 2011, p. 18. Antoon’s role in the commission is also repeated in the _Nieuwen Verlichter der Konst-Schilders, Vernisseurs, Vergulders en Marmelaers_, Ghent 1788, II, p. 243.} to be displayed as one in a series of nineteen on the pillars of its church as part of the feast of thanksgiving for the beatification of the martyrs of Gorcum, 9-16 July 1676;{‘De Minderbroeders...hadden hunne kercke seer verciert: aen de pilaren waeren gestelt de afbeldtsels van de xix. Martelaeren seer wel geschildert door David Teniers den jongen, omset met bloermen cransen door G.Gysaert... see [J.P.van Goethem],Twee hondert jaerigen jubel-galm opheldert door jouffrouw J.P.V.G..., 1772’, quoted in R. Tepe, _Oog in Oog met de Martelaren van Gorcum_ , exh. cat. Gorcum (Gorcums Museum) 2012, under no. 4. See also H. Vlieghe, _David Teniers (1610-1690): A Biography_, Turnhout 2011, p. 123, note 116.} the series was subsequently divided with the Franciscans in Leuven; the Mechelen friary was suppressed in 1796;{M. Verjans O.F.M., ‘Het Cultuurleven te Mechelen’, in R. Foncke, E. Buskens and L. Lebeer, _Mechelen de Heerlijke_, Mechelen 1947, pp. 633-51, p. 636; L. Godenne, _Malines jadis & aujourd’hui_, Malines 1908, p. 388.} perhaps sold by the Mechelen Franciscan friars, Mechelen (Laureys), 5 September 1811{S. Schoutens, _Kunstschilders beeldhouwers en bouwkundigen der minderbroedersorde in België_, Antwerp 1903, p. 13; H. Vlieghe, _David Teniers (1610-1690): A Biography_, Turnhout 2011, pp. 123-24, note 119; R. Tepe, _Oog in Oog met de Martelaren van Gorcum_, exh. cat. (Gorcum) Gorcums Museum 2012, under no. 4.} or in a sale by the Order, Mechelen, 5 October 1824;{S. Schoutens, _Kunstschilders beeldhouwers en bouwkundigen der minderbroedersorde in België_, Antwerp 1903, p. 13; H. Vlieghe, _David Teniers (1610-1690): A Biography_, Turnhout 2011, pp. 123-24, note 119; R. Tepe, _Oog in Oog met de Martelaren van Gorcum_, exh. cat. (Gorcum) Gorcums Museum 2012, under no. 4. Roy Tepe, in his email 28 October 2017, kindly drew attention to later sales of paintings from the series: Mechelen (Elst), 10 April 1837, nos. 141, 152, 272, 276, 309, and anonymous sale, London (Christie’s), 1 March 1839, no. 108 and from Belgium, Mlle. Dusart (†) sale, Mechelen (Le Roy), 6 June 1854, no. 133. These were of martyrs Petrus Ascanus and Nicasius Hezius respectively; the paintings were subsequently in sales at Christie’s in 1963 and Budapest in 2011, see below.}...; sale, Comte Andor de Festetics de Tolna (1843-1930, Szelestic castle, near Szombathely, Hungary), Amsterdam (C.F. Roos), 22 January 1884 _sqq_., no. 58, fl. 230, to the museum{NHA, ARS, Kop, inv. 39, pp. 342-43, no. 11 (3 March 1884); the lot was knocked down for fl. 200 to de Vries (whose name is inscribed on the reverse of the frame); information as to auction price from Roy Tepe, email 23 October 2017.}
Bibliography and list of abbreviations for the provenance (pdf)
