A Road near a Cottage

Rendered in earthy tones of russet and ochre, a rustic building – perhaps a tavern – nestles into a pastoral landscape, the warmth of the mottled plaster walls and soft strokes of thatch contrasting with the cool brightness of the sky behind. Painted as a pair with ‘A Cottage’ (DPG52), the composition is mirrored in each image, with the same building and weathered sign seen from opposite directions. In this painting, a town can be glimpsed in the distance, a church’s spire framed in the centre. Tiny dots of paint convey the sheep grazing beneath the trees, tended by a vigilant shepherd, his figure only just discernible. Isolated notes of primary colours, red, yellow and blue, draw the eye to the foreground group where the figures have paused outside the cottage, perhaps to ask directions from the man in the red cap, their walking sticks crossed.  

Scenes of everyday peasant life were popular with the Dutch middle classes in the seventeenth century, and Flemish artist David Teniers (1610-90) mastered their depiction over his long career. Often worked on a small scale, he was capable of conveying the nuances of human interaction in just a few strokes of paint, repeating poses and characters throughout his paintings with a familiarity that lends a natural and realistic element to the narrative. While many of his works featured busy, often rowdy, scenes, this example offers a peaceful subject that, when viewed with ‘A Cottage’, encourages a conversation between the two.