Meal in the Barn

Meal in the Barn belongs to Teniers's large output of peasant interior scenes, which drew on the tradition established by Adriaen Brouwer and refined for the tastes of aristocratic collectors throughout the Spanish Netherlands. A meal in a barn — simple figures eating bread, drinking from jugs, handling humble vessels — combined the Flemish delight in domestic detail with a humanising interest in the lives of agricultural labourers. Teniers painted hundreds of such scenes, varying the compositions with different numbers of figures, indoor and outdoor settings, and seasonal moods, achieving enormous commercial success with this reliable subject matter.

Interior light from a window illuminates the seated figures and their simple meal against the darker barn behind. Teniers's touch — loose, confident, attentive to material surfaces — renders rough textures of wooden tables, earthen vessels, and worn clothing with accomplished economy.