The artist was born in Antwerp and received his first painting lessons from his father, David Teniers the Elder. At the beginning of 1630 he met the Flemish artist Adrian Brauver who painted genre scenes from peasant life. Since that time, rural holidays, interiors, portraits of the Dutch people and local landscapes had become the main topics in Teniers’ artwork.

At the age of 22, David Teniers the Younger was accepted into the guild of painters. In a couple of years, he moved to Brussels, where he became a court painter and curator of the art gallery of the Spanish governor, Archduke Leopold-Wilhelm. The latter recommended that the European monarchs order paintings from Teniers. Among the artist’s famous clients were the King of Spain Philip IV, the Prince of the Netherlands William II, the Queen of Sweden Christina and other monarchs.

In the mid-1660’s, Teniers participated in the establishment of the Antwerp Academy, and later he became its first headmaster. He continued to depict everyday scenes and became one of the most popular genre artists of the 17th century after his teacher and patron, Dutch master Peter Paul Rubens. Teniers’ models are simple villagers who gather in the evenings near taverns, talk noisily and enjoy themselves.

In his canvas The Musician, the artist reproduced a plot typical of his artwork, a scene from peasant life. Musicians often became the main characters of his works, such as The Duet, The Flutist, Shepherd and Shepherdess. Creating these images, the artist sought to convey the national flavor and reveal the features of the national character. As other genre paintings of the author, the Musician is dominated by brown-gray colors.

Before the revolution of 1917, the painting was in the collection of Pavel Stroganov in Znamenskoye village of the Tambov province. It entered the collection of the Tambov Picture Gallery in 1962.