BRUSSELS, Peter van den HECKE (active 1710-1752), circa 1710. The Vintage. Important, fine and rare tapestry in silk, wool and metal threads, signed and monogrammed B.B (Brussels - Brabant) (very good state of conservation of the tapestry and remarkable freshness of the colours, slight natural oxidations, small tears). Height : 340 cm 340 cm - Width : 353 cm Our panel belongs to a suite of port and harvest trades. In the foreground, we discover a garden with ears of wheat, essential and primordial food symbolizing the gift of life. In the background, beautiful buildings are represented in perspective. On the left, a view of a fishing port opens up behind the arches of a bridge. In the centre, a wine merchant can be seen tasting and negotiating the new wine, surrounded by winegrowers and farmers. Some are carrying the grapes, others are busy at the press, while the cooper, surrounded by women, is making a barrel. Peter van den Hecke was inspired by David Teniers II, known as the Younger (1610-1690), but also by the Flemish painter Jan van Orley or Jan van Orley II (1665-1735). Tapestries known as "Teniers" were fashionable in Flemish production at the end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th centuries. The cartoons of David Teniers the Younger, illustrating the daily life of the peasants, were very much in demand in Europe and had a great success among the rich bourgeois of the time. David Teniers the Younger studied under his father (David Teniers I, also known as David Teniers the Elder), with whom he collaborated at the beginning of his career. In 1632, he was admitted as a freemason of the guild of Saint Luke in Antwerp and became dean of this guild in 1644. In 1663, he was one of the founders of the Antwerp Academy of Fine Arts and tackled the most diverse genres with ease: still life, portraiture, landscape, history and genre painting. He was above all the painter of cabarets, fairs and rustic entertainments. In 1651, he settled in Brussels, where he died, and entered the service of Archduke Leopold-Guillaume, governor of the Netherlands, who made him his private painter and appointed him curator of his picture gallery. Three comparable tapestries are known, one in the Uppark House and Garden in West Sussex (286 cm x 289 cm), a small panel (without border) in the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco listed in Guy Delmarcel's book (Reference 1310) (272 cm x 240 cm) and the third in the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Bibliography : Guy Delmarcel, La tapisserie flamande : du XVe au XVIIIe siècle, éditions Racine Lannoo, 2000. Expert : Mr Frank KASSAPIAN - frank.kassapian@yahoo.fr - 06 58 68 52 26