David Teniers the Younger

Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in his Gallery in Brussels, c. 1651, oil on canvas, 123 × 163 cm, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

David Teniers the Younger was a Flemish artist. His son and his grandson were also painters. His wife Anna was the daughter of Jan Brueghel the Elder and the granddaughter of Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

The great significance of Leopold Wilhelm is based less on his political activity as regent of the Spanish Netherlands than on his role as a patron of the arts. He compiled a gallery of more than 1400 pictures, most of which are found in the Kunsthistorisches Museum today.
Here Teniers, who was the gallery director of the archduke, depicts the archduke and himself with several other people against a decorative background of paintings. They view 51 Italian works from the collection of the duke of Hamilton. Leopold Wilhelm had purchased them shortly before this picture was painted.