Tobit and the Dead Israelite (after Domenico Fetti)
- Artist: David Teniers II
- Date: 1650-56
- Medium: oil on panel
- Museum: The Courtauld Gallery
- Collection record: The Courtauld Gallery website
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About this artwork
This is the “Tobit and the Dead Israelite (after Domenico Fetti)” painted by David Teniers II. Created between 1650 and 1656, the work is an oil on panel that Teniers produced as part of a larger project. In 1660 he published Theatrum Pictorium, the first printed and illustrated catalogue of a major art collection. The collection belonged to Archduke Leopold Wilhelm, who had amassed more than 1,300 paintings in the Southern Netherlands during his governorship. To prepare the catalogue, Teniers made dozens of small copies of the originals, working directly on wooden panels. He sent these reproductions to specialist engravers, who turned them into prints for publication. The painting in question is one of the 243 images that appear in the catalogue, most of which come from the Italian Renaissance. The Courtauld Gallery holds 14 of Teniers’ copies—the largest number in any public collection—which makes this work an invaluable record of paintings that have since been altered or lost. The piece also showcases Teniers’ remarkable skill and the growing 17th‑century fascination with the art of the past.
See it in person
Tobit and the Dead Israelite (after Domenico Fetti) hangs in The Courtauld Gallery at Somerset House, London. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
