A Peasant holding a Glass by David Teniers the Younger

Rendered in rough and brusque strokes that capture his down-to-earth character, this peasant grips his glass of beer with both hands, eyeing the drink’s level. This type of glass, known as a pasglas or “pass glass” in seventeenth-century Holland, was often used in drinking games where drinkers had to consume their beverage down to a specific mark on the vessel’s exterior. By reckoning how far he will drink, this peasant humorously suggests he is employing discerning vision. Painted by the Flemish artist David Teniers (1610-90), this interest in humour is characteristic of Teniers’s work as a genre painter, or an artist who depicts scenes of everyday life and everyday people.

This work forms a pair with A Peasant. They are both painted on copper. Over a quarter of works in Teniers’s extensive oeuvre were executed on this metal support that perfectly served the artist’s purpose of showing intricate light effects and his love of detail. Copper was a popular material among numerous Dutch and Flemish painters. Its smooth surface often encouraged a finer manner of painting so Teniers’s sketch-like brushwork in A Peasant Holding a Glass is unusual, a style more reminiscent of paintings by Teniers’s contemporary, Adriaen Brouwer (c.1605-38).