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The Card Players
Gerard ter Borch (Dutch, 1617–1681)
about 1659
Medium/Technique
Oil on canvas, laid down on panel
Dimensions
47.6 × 36.8 cm (18 3/4 × 14 1/2 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo, in support of the Center for Netherlandish Art
Accession Number2022.1918
OUT ON LOAN
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPaintings
A quiet game of cards takes place in a well-appointed interior, with fine furniture and walls decorated with a framed painting and a large map of Europe. The clothing is more luxurious still. It’s impossible to ignore the skirts of silk satin, a fabric likely imported from Asia. Ter Borch was unmatched in depicting gleaming satin.
ProvenanceBy 1752, Gerard Braamcamp (b. 1699 – d. 1771), Amsterdam [see note 1]; July 31, 1771, Braamcamp sale, Philippus van der Schley, Amsterdam, lot 41, sold for fl. 305 to Maclaine [see note 2]. Cornelis Ploos van Amstel (b. 1726 – d. 1798), Amsterdam; March 3, 1800, van Amstel sale, Philippus van der Schley, Amsterdam, lot 1, sold for fl. 610 to Jan Yver for Pieter van Winter (b. 1745 – d. 1807), Amsterdam [see note 3]; by descent to his daughter, Anna Louisa Agatha van Loon-van Winter (b. 1793 – d. 1877), Amsterdam [see note 4]; 1877, Van Loon collection sold en bloc to Alphonse, Gustave, Edmond, Lionel and Ferdinand de Rothschild (acting in syndicate) [see note 5]; collection allocated by the syndicate to Lionel de Rothschild (b. 1808 – d. 1879), London; by 1882, by descent to his son, Alfred de Rothschild (b. 1842 – d. 1918), London [see note 6]. By 1900, Arthur Sanderson, Edinburgh [see note 7]. By 1903, Thomas Lawrie and Co., London [see note 8]; November 10, 1904, sold by Thomas Lawrie and Co. to Knoedler and Co., London (stock no. 3693); March 31, 1905, sold by Knoedler and Co., New York (stock no. 10676), to John W. Simpson, New York [see note 9]; 1908, consigned by John W. Simpson to Knoedler and Co., New York (no. C 3621); December 18, 1908, sold by Knoedler to Colnaghi, London [see note 10]. By 1913, Marcus Kappel (b. 1839 – d. 1919), Berlin [see note 11]. 1914, sold by Kappel to Galerie Caspari, Munich [see note 12]; March 6, 1928, sold by Galerie Caspari to Knoedler and Co., New York (stock no. A79); September 1928, sold by Knoedler to Allan C. Balch, Los Angeles; 1944, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Allan C. Balch to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (accession no. M.44.2.7); 2009, deaccessioned by the L.A. County Museum of Art for sale; June 4, 2009, Los Angeles County Museum of Art and others sale, Sotheby’s, New York, lot 20, to Johnny Van Haeften, London [see note 13]; 2017, sold by Johnny Van Haeften to Eijk and Rose-Marie van Otterloo, Naples, FL [see note 14]; 2022, gift of Eijk and Rose-Marie van Otterloo to the MFA. (Accession Date: December 6, 2022)
NOTES:
[1] According to Gerard Hoet, Catalogus of Naamlyst van schilderyen, met derzelver pryzen zeedert een langen reeks van jaaren zoo in Holland als op andere plaatzen in het openbaar verkogt, vol. 2 (The Hague, 1752), p. 503.
[2] Sold as by “Gerard ter Burg.” Buyer information according to a handwritten note in the catalogue.
[3] Buyer information according to the 2009 Sotheby’s catalogue.
[4] Sir Charles Eastlake noted this painting was in the van Loon collection during a visit in 1860. See Susanna Avery-Quash, “The Travel Notebooks of Sir Charles Eastlake: Volume 1,” Walpole Society 73 (2011), p. 549.
[5] See Michael Hall, “Le Goût Rothschild: The Origins and Influences of a Collecting Style” in British Models of Art Collecting and the American Response (Surrey, 2014), p. 110.
[6] According to Charles Davis, Description of the Works of Art forming the Collection of Alfred de Rothschild, vol. 1 (London, 1884), cat. no. 32.
[7] Arthur Sanderson lent the painting to the Burlington Fine Arts Club, Exhibition of Pictures by Dutch Masters of the Seventeenth Century (London, 1900), cat. no. 4.
[8] The painting was exhibited and published by Thomas Lawrie & Co. in Catalogue of a Collection of Selected Pictures by Dutch Artists of the Seventeenth Century in 1903.
[9] Sold as Terburg, “Interior with figures.”
[10] John W. Simpson and Knoedler and Co. each received half of the sale price when the painting was sold to Colnaghi.
[11] According to Cornelis Hofstede de Groot, Catalogue of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters, vol. 5 (1913), cat. no. 111.
[12] According to Frederik J. Duparc in Dutch and Flemish Masterworks: From the Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Collection (Boston, 2020), p. 29.
[13] According to Susan Moore, “Susan Moore previews of Old Master Sales in London and reviews TEFAF New York,” Apollo 186 (December 2017), p. 92, and Duparc 2020 (see above, note 12), p. 29.
[14] Sale date is taken from Duparc 2020 (see above, note 12), p. 29.
NOTES:
[1] According to Gerard Hoet, Catalogus of Naamlyst van schilderyen, met derzelver pryzen zeedert een langen reeks van jaaren zoo in Holland als op andere plaatzen in het openbaar verkogt, vol. 2 (The Hague, 1752), p. 503.
[2] Sold as by “Gerard ter Burg.” Buyer information according to a handwritten note in the catalogue.
[3] Buyer information according to the 2009 Sotheby’s catalogue.
[4] Sir Charles Eastlake noted this painting was in the van Loon collection during a visit in 1860. See Susanna Avery-Quash, “The Travel Notebooks of Sir Charles Eastlake: Volume 1,” Walpole Society 73 (2011), p. 549.
[5] See Michael Hall, “Le Goût Rothschild: The Origins and Influences of a Collecting Style” in British Models of Art Collecting and the American Response (Surrey, 2014), p. 110.
[6] According to Charles Davis, Description of the Works of Art forming the Collection of Alfred de Rothschild, vol. 1 (London, 1884), cat. no. 32.
[7] Arthur Sanderson lent the painting to the Burlington Fine Arts Club, Exhibition of Pictures by Dutch Masters of the Seventeenth Century (London, 1900), cat. no. 4.
[8] The painting was exhibited and published by Thomas Lawrie & Co. in Catalogue of a Collection of Selected Pictures by Dutch Artists of the Seventeenth Century in 1903.
[9] Sold as Terburg, “Interior with figures.”
[10] John W. Simpson and Knoedler and Co. each received half of the sale price when the painting was sold to Colnaghi.
[11] According to Cornelis Hofstede de Groot, Catalogue of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters, vol. 5 (1913), cat. no. 111.
[12] According to Frederik J. Duparc in Dutch and Flemish Masterworks: From the Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Collection (Boston, 2020), p. 29.
[13] According to Susan Moore, “Susan Moore previews of Old Master Sales in London and reviews TEFAF New York,” Apollo 186 (December 2017), p. 92, and Duparc 2020 (see above, note 12), p. 29.
[14] Sale date is taken from Duparc 2020 (see above, note 12), p. 29.