HOOCH, Pieter de
(b. 1629, Rotterdam, d. 1684, Amsterdam)

Card Players at a Table

1670-74
Oil on canvas, 107 x 93 cm
Private collection

In the interior of a grand house, a group of figures are gathered around a table playing a game of cards. The officer in the right foreground shows his hand of cards looking directly out of the picture as he does so, seemingly acknowledging the presence of the viewer and inviting us to watch the course of the game. The seated female figure is carefully considering the next card she will play while the sumptuously attired woman on the left has sprung from her chair, caught up in the excitement of it all. A canal-side scene, bathed in warm summer sunlight can be glimpsed through the doorway to the right and provides a contrast to the more animated proceedings at the table.

This genre scene was painted in the artist's Amsterdam period but it has its origin in the interiors that De Hooch began to paint in Delft in the mid-1650s.