thumb|right|David Teniers in [[Het Gulden Kabinet, engraved by Peter van Liesebetten after a painting by Peter de Mol, 1661.]]
right|thumb|David Teniers the Elder, Village Feast, Panel <br> Accademia Carrara, Bergamo
David Teniers the Elder (158229 July 1649), Flemish painter, was born at Antwerp of a family originally from Ath.
Biography
right|thumb|David Teniers the Elder, [[Venus (mythology)|Venus Visiting Vulcan's Forge, <br> The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo]]
The Teniers family of painters came from Ath, a town in Hainaut.
Having received his first training in the painter's art from his brother Juliaen, he studied under Rubens in Antwerp, and subsequently under Elsheimer in Rome; he became a member of the Antwerp guild of painters in 1606.
Though his ambition led him at times to try his skill in large religious, historical and mythological compositions, his claim to fame depends chiefly on his landscapes and paintings of peasants carousing, of kermesse scenes and the like, which are marked by a healthy sense of humour, and which are not infrequently confused with the early works of his son David.