David Teniers the Younger, 'Autumn', about 1644
About the work
Overview
A wine drinker – a stout fellow with a handsome moustache – represents Autumn in a series of paintings by David Teniers that gives each season a human form. A white sash cradles a comfortable belly, and stretched over it is a wine-coloured jacket. His fat neck disappears into the collar of his jacket and his cap is awry.
In the background, a man raises a hammer to fasten down the lid of a barrel of wine. A second, in a pink coat, attends to a barrel that has spilled grapes on to the ground. But Autumn stands with his sturdy legs apart, mouth open as if carousing, eyes perhaps a little bleary. He holds a flagon in one hand and raises a glass with a fancy stem in the other, seemingly happily ignorant of the grey clouds piling up behind him.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- Autumn
- Artist
- David Teniers the Younger
- Artist dates
- 1610 - 1690
- Part of the series
- The Four Seasons
- Date made
- about 1644
- Medium and support
- oil on copper
- Dimensions
- 22.1 × 16.4 cm
- Inscription summary
- Signed
- Acquisition credit
- Bought, 1871
- Inventory number
- NG859
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Previous owners
About this record
If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.
Images
About the series: The Four Seasons

Overview
This series of four small paintings is an allegory of the seasons: spring, summer, autumn and winter have been given human forms that embody the essence of each. Spring is a gardener carrying a tree to plant in a formal garden; Summer is a peasant tying up a sheaf of corn; Autumn is a drinker who raises a glass of wine; and Winter is an old man wearing a fur cap and mantle, warming himself near a brazier.
Strongly influenced early in his career by the Dutch artist Adriaen Brouwer, Teniers became the most famous painter of peasant life of his day, rivalling Brouwer’s rowdy, raunchy tavern scenes full of larger-than-life characters.