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Interior settings lend themselves to great contrasts of light and dark. In a gloomy tavern, a game of cards has ground to a halt. One of the players, in a red cap, has fallen asleep, slumping over the table. The others tease him. The windows show a brighter and presumably healthier world outside.
Drinking and Card-playing in a Tavern
Cornelis Pietersz Bega (Dutch, 1620–1664)
about 1655–1656
Medium/Technique
Oil on panel
Dimensions
35.5 × 57 cm (14 × 22 7/16 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of the Maida and George Abrams Collection—Gift of George S. Abrams in memory of my sister, Judicial Supreme Court Justice Ruth I. Abrams
Accession Number2020.404
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPaintings
Interior settings lend themselves to great contrasts of light and dark. In a gloomy tavern, a game of cards has ground to a halt. One of the players, in a red cap, has fallen asleep, slumping over the table. The others tease him. The windows show a brighter and presumably healthier world outside.
Signed
Signed, lower left: C Bega
ProvenanceC. J. Terbrugge (d. by 1888), The Netherlands; June 12-13, 1888, posthumous Terburgge sale, Muller, Amsterdam, lot 7, sold for fl 690. By 1891, Grigory Stroganoff (b. 1829 – d. 1910), Nemyriv Palace, Podolia, Ukraine and Palazzo Stroganoff, Rome [see note 1]; by inheritance within the family to his grandchildren, Vladimir Alekseevich Scherbatoff and Aleksandra Alekseevna Scherbatoff, Rome; after about 1921, sold by the Scherbatoff family [see note 2]. Probably about 1920s/1930s, Gray or Grey [see note 3]. By 1948, Jessie Louise Parkinson (Mrs. Anton) Vroeg (b. 1889 – d. 1986), Montreux, Switzerland, Cap Martin, France, and Providence, RI [see note 4]; May 14, 1958, sale (consigned by Mrs. Anton Vroeg), Sotheby’s, London, lot 132, sold for £180 to “Carlin.” February 21, 1962, anonymous sale, Sotheby’s, London, lot 29, to Alfred Brod Gallery, London. July 6, 1988, anonymous sale, Sotheby’s, London, lot 104, unsold; May 17, 1989, anonymous sale, Sotheby’s, London, lot 82, probably to Johnny van Haeften (dealer) and Otto Naumann (dealer), London; 1989, sold by Johnny van Haeften and Otto Naumann to George S. and Maida Abrams, Newton, MA; 2020, gift of George S. Abrams to the MFA. (Accession Date: December 16, 2020)
NOTES:
[1] A label on the back of the painting, dated in Rome March 7, 1891, suggests that the painting was imported at that time and examined by Guglielmo De Sanctis, a painter and inspector of art for the Italian government. Many thanks to Vardui Kalpakcian for her assistance with this matter. [2] On the fate of the collection, see Vardui Kalpakcian, “Il Destino della Collezione Romana del Conte Grigorij S. Stroganoff (1829-1910) dopo la scomparsa del collezionista,” Rivista d’Arte, ser. 5, vol. 2 (2012): 447-473. [3] At least one other painting from the Grigory Stroganoff collection passed to Mrs. Vroeg through Gray or Grey, and it seems likely that this painting did as well. See A. Plokker, Adriaen Pietersz. Van de Venne: De Grisailles met Spreukbanden (Louvain, 1984), p. 67, cat. no. 19. [4] Mrs. Vroeg wrote to the dealer Edward Fowles at Duveen Brothers on December 13, 1952 that the Bega was among the paintings she had moved to the United States in 1948 (Duveen Records, Getty Research Institute, Series IIE, Correspondence, Box 382). The painting bears Swiss customs stamps on the reverse.
NOTES:
[1] A label on the back of the painting, dated in Rome March 7, 1891, suggests that the painting was imported at that time and examined by Guglielmo De Sanctis, a painter and inspector of art for the Italian government. Many thanks to Vardui Kalpakcian for her assistance with this matter. [2] On the fate of the collection, see Vardui Kalpakcian, “Il Destino della Collezione Romana del Conte Grigorij S. Stroganoff (1829-1910) dopo la scomparsa del collezionista,” Rivista d’Arte, ser. 5, vol. 2 (2012): 447-473. [3] At least one other painting from the Grigory Stroganoff collection passed to Mrs. Vroeg through Gray or Grey, and it seems likely that this painting did as well. See A. Plokker, Adriaen Pietersz. Van de Venne: De Grisailles met Spreukbanden (Louvain, 1984), p. 67, cat. no. 19. [4] Mrs. Vroeg wrote to the dealer Edward Fowles at Duveen Brothers on December 13, 1952 that the Bega was among the paintings she had moved to the United States in 1948 (Duveen Records, Getty Research Institute, Series IIE, Correspondence, Box 382). The painting bears Swiss customs stamps on the reverse.