‘The Gypsy Fortune Teller’, A Flemish ‘Country Life’, landscape tapestry, after David II Teniers, Oudenaarde or Lille, first quarter 18th century

The Princely House of Liechtenstein

Vienna, before 1944;

Schloss Vaduz, Liechtenstein, 1944;

Vienna, 1953;

Schloss Vaduz, 1953;

Vienna, 1954;

On loan from to the Savoyen Convent, Vienna;

Sold Christie's, Amsterdam, Property from the Collection of the Princely House of Liechtenstein, 1 April 2008, lot 177;

where acquired by the present owner.

Judocus de Vos (1661-1734) was from an established Brussels weaving family and is thought to have obtained the ‘Teniers’ cartoons from the weavers Jacob van de Borcht and Jeroen Le Clerc (d.1722) and Jacob Van der Borcht, who were responsible for the earliest weavings of the Teniers tapestries. De Vos reproduced them and altered them in various weavings, which included the interpretations and representation of The Gypsy Fortune Teller. 

For a Flemish, Lille or Oudenaarde weaving of this subject, with additional figures next to the standing gypsy, of a seated lady with a baby and other seated lady onlooking, all set within a wider and more elaborate border of flowers and foliage on a brown ground (257 by 310cm), see Sotheby’s, London, The Vigo Sternberg Collection, 29 February 1996, lot 67, together with lot 66, which was an earlier Brussels weaving of the subject, circa 1720, after Judocus de Vos, with the same arrangement of the three figures shown in the present panel, although with a more complex arrangement of the additional figures. For another weaving of the subject, first quarter 18th century, with the Brussels town mark and the weaver’s mark, see Sotheby’s, London, 20 September 2011, lot 4. 

See other ‘Country Life’ tapestries in this sale which are from this series, and are of different sizes.

The Savoyisches Damenstift

These tapestries were for many decades on loan from the Collection of the Princely House of Liechtenstein to the Savoyisches Damenstift, which had been founded by Theresia Anna Felicitas, Princess of Liechtenstein (1694-1772) who was the fourth daughter of Prince Johann Adam of Liechtenstein.

Princess of Liechtenstein was married in 1713 to Prince Thomas Emanuel of Savoy-Carignan, a nephew of the famous Prince Eugene. Widowed as early as 1729, she had a large fortune, which she used for various charitable purposes. In her will, written in 1769, she created the Savoyisches Damenstift that was to house, in the Princess's Vienna residence, twenty noblewomen facing reduced circumstances. The 20 nuns were to be of old nobility, between 15 and 40 years old at the time of admission, possess no more than 4000 gulden in assets and be orphans or fatherless. They lived in the convent building, had to perform devotional exercises and wear black clothing with the order's emblem, but were allowed to go out, travel and even marry.

The former duchess's residence at Johannesgasse 15 served as the convent’s quarters, but it soon became too small for all the women and their numerous servants, so the neighbouring property was acquired in 1783.