The Card Players

probably c. 1550/1599

Three women and five men play cards around a round table covered with piles of gold coins in this square painting. The people all have pale skin. The women have round faces, close-set, small eyes, delicate noses and lips, and cleft chins. They wear dresses with tight bodices and long sleeves, and cloth head coverings. The men have prominent, bumped noses, furrowed brows, and lines around their eyes. They wear hats and voluminous robes and coats in shades of ruby red, moss green, golden brown, and black. Two women and two men play cards, and each has a second person behind them or at their shoulders. The woman along the left edge of the painting wears gloves, and she looks out at us. She points at the table or at the space between her and another card player. She holds her cards up so the six of hearts at the front is visible in front of a face card of hearts and a card with spades. A clean-shaven man standing behind her stoops and drapes his arms across her shoulders, one hand limp and gesturing with a three and the other hand cupping the woman’s cards. He looks across the table. The next player is also a woman, who rests one wrist on her face-down cards on the table. She counts out coins with her other hand, and the bearded man behind her stands with one hand tucked into the opening of his robe, leaning back as he looks across the table. Next, a clean-shaven man holds three cards up to his chest as he turns to look to our left, his brows gathered and lips parted. A woman stands between these two players with a hand draped over each of their shoulders. She peers down at the man’s cards and makes a number two with that hand. Her other loose fist rests on the shoulder of the second female card player. The final pair, along the right edge of the painting, are two men. The card player holds his cards so we see the ace of spades at the front. He points at a row of coins or toward the gap left between him and the woman to our left. He leans forward and looks intently, chin jutted out, at the man with his hand tucked into his robe. A man with a long gray beard sits just over the fourth player’s shoulder and appears to look across the scene absently with heavy-lidded eyes. The round table is covered in a teal-blue cloth. A rectangular sideboard in the back left of the room is covered with a white cloth and holds a vase of white flowers, a vessel, a wooden basket, and a piece of fruit. The wall behind this is gray along the top and wood-paneled below. An alcove in the wall to the right holds two vessels, a round gold-colored, plum-sized object, and another basket. A pale yellow curtain is pulled to the right side of that alcove.

Media Options

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On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 41

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on panel

  • Credit Line

    Samuel H. Kress Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 55.2 x 60.9 cm (21 3/4 x 24 in.)
    framed: 80 x 85.1 x 7.3 cm (31 1/2 x 33 1/2 x 2 7/8 in.)

  • Accession

    1961.9.27

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(Van Diemen Gallery, Berlin, by 1923); (sold, Christie's, London, 20 May 1926, no. 269, as by Van Leyden); bought by Asscher and Welker, London). [1] Acquired from "Sarasota" 19 November 1928 by (Galerie Julius Böhler, Munich).[2] (Tomas Harris Gallery, London, by 1935).[3] Private Collection, Switzerland, by 1945.[4] (Frederick Mont, New York); sold 18 October 1951 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[5] gift 1961 to NGA.
[1] Van Diemen listed as seller and Asscher as buyer in the annotated auctioneer catalogue, Christie's Archive, London.
[2] Böhler card no. 309-28, Böhler Gallery Records, Getty Research Institute.
[3] Tomas Harris Gallery, Exhibition of Early Flemish Paintings, (London, 1935), no. 19, as Lucas van Leyden.
[4] Basel, Offentliche Kunstsammlung (Kunstmuseum), 1945, Meisterwerke hollandischer Malerei des 16. bis 18. Jahrhunderts, no. 43, as Lucas van Leyden.
[5] See The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/2095.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1935

  • Exhibition of Early Flemish Paintings, Tomas Harris Gallery, London, 1935, no. 19, as Lucas van Leyden.

1945

  • Meisterwerke holländischer Malerei des 16. bis 18. Jahrhunderts, Öffentliche Kunstsammlung (Kunstmuseum), Basel, 1945, no. 43, as Lucas van Leyden.

1998

  • A Collector's Cabinet, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1998, no. 36, fig. 19.

Bibliography

1924

  • Friedländer, Max J. Die altniederländische Malerei 14 vols. 1924-1937. Berlin, 1932: 10:95, 137, no. 142, pl. 87. (English ed., 14 vols., 1967-1976. Leiden, 1973: 10:54, 84, no. 142, pl. 109.)

1936

  • Hoogewerff, G. J. De Noord-Nederlandsche Schilderkunst. 5 vols. The Hague, 1939: 3:259.

1956

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 1951-56. Introduction by John Walker, text by William E. Suida and Fern Rusk Shapley. National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1956: 118, no. 45, repro., as by Lucas van Leyden.

  • Walker, John. "The Nation's Newest Old Masters." The National Geographic Magazine 110, no. 5 (November 1956): 628-629, color repro. 653.

1957

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Comparisons in Art: A Companion to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. London, 1957 (reprinted 1959): pl. 107, 123, as by Lucas van Leyden.

1958

  • Nicolson, Benedict. Hendrick Terbrugghen. London, 1958: 84.

1959

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 321, repro., as by Lucas van Leyden.

1960

  • Baird, Thomas P. Dutch Painting in the National Gallery of Art. Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art 7. Washington, D.C., 1960: 26, color repro., as by Lucas van Leyden.

1961

  • Judson, J. Richard. "Review of Hendrick Terbrugghen by Benedict Nicolson." In The The Art Bulletin 43 (1961): 347.

1962

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. Treasures from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1962: 74, color repro., as by Lucas van Leyden.

1963

  • Friedländer, Max J. Lucas van Leyden. Berlin, 1963: 62-63.

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 306, repro., as by van Leyden.

1965

  • Reznicek-Buriks, E. I. Review of Lucas van Leyden by Max J. Friedländer. In Oud Holland 80 (1965): 244-245.

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 78, as by van Leyden.

1966

  • Held, Julius S. Review of Lucas van Leyden by Max J. Friedländer. In Art Bulletin 48 (1966): 447.

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 1:106-107, color repro., as by Lucas van Leyden.

1968

  • Cuttler, Charles D. Northern Painting, from Pucelle to Bruegel: Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and Sixteenth Centuries. New York, 1968: 443.

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 68, repro., as by van Leyden.

  • Gandolfo, Giampaolo et al. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Great Museums of the World. New York, 1968: 130, color repro.

1974

  • Silver, Lawrence A. "The Ill-Matched Pair by Quinten Massys." _Studies in the History of Art 6 (1974): 114, repro. 122.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 202, repro., as by van Leyden

1977

  • Eisler, Colin. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian. Oxford, 1977: 85-86, fig. 84.

  • Pope-Hennessy, John. "Completing the Account." Review of Colin Eisler, Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection, London 1977. Times Literary Supplement no. 3,927 (17 June 1977).

1978

  • Filedt Kok, Jan Piet. "Underdrawing and Other Technical Aspects in the Paintings of Lucas van Leyden." Nederlands kunsthistorisch jaarboek 29 (1978): 128-132, figs. 135, 136, 137.

  • Vos, Rik. Lucas van Leyden. Bentveld and Maarssen, 1978: 106, repro. 107.

1979

  • Rosenbaum, Allen. Old Master Paintings from the Collection of Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza. Exh. cat. International Exhibitions Foundation, Washington, 1979: 114.

1980

  • Gibson, Walter S. Review of Lucas van Leyden studies in the Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 29 (1978). In Simiolus 11 (1980): 108.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. Washington, 1984: 168, no. 187, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 235, repro.

1986

  • Hand, John Oliver and Martha Wolff. Early Netherlandish Painting. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, 1986: 142-144, repro. 141.

1992

  • Smith, Elise Lawton. The Paintings of Lucas van Leyden, A New Appraisal, with Catalogue Raisonné. Columbia University, New York, 1992: 175-176, repro. 250.

Wikidata ID

Q20176441

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