Object data
oil on panel
support: height 19.6 cm × width 23.1 cm
outer size: depth 4.5 cm (support incl. frame)
Daniël Boone
Men Playing Cards in a Tavern
c. 1660 - c. 1680
Inscriptions
- signature, bottom centre: D·Boone
Scientific examination and reports
- technical report: G. Tauber, RMA, 30 August 2006
- dendrochronology: P. Klein, RMA, 3 March 2007
Provenance
…; anonymous sale [J. Fischer (Mainz) (†)], Amsterdam (C.F. Roos), 20 January 1885, no. 7, fl. 38, to C.F. Roos;1 from whom, fl. 45, to the museum, 18852
Object number: SK-A-987
Copyright: Public domain
The artist
Daniel Boone ((?) Borgerhout (?)1632 - London 1692)
According to Campo Weyerman, Daniel Boone (or Boon or Boontje), painter of low-life scenes, was born in Borgerhout, near Antwerp, in 1632, and was taught by Joos van Craesbeeck, active in Antwerp from 1633/34 until circa 1651 and thereafter, in Brussels. There is no record of his apprenticeship in the St Luke’s guild rosters of either city. Certainly Boone was in Amsterdam by 1654 and in contact then with Reynier Hals (1627-1672), who made a disposition for him and Pieter van Roestraeten (c. 1630-1700).3 But there is no further reference to Boone in the extensive archival material relating to Hals, and the styles of the two artists as far as can be judged are not close.4 In Amsterdam Boone may also have known Egbert van Heemskerk I (c. 1634-1704), who bore witness for Hals there in 1661, and was to remain on and off in Amsterdam for the rest of the decade before leaving for England in the 1670s.5 Sometime during the reign of King Charles II (1660-85), Boone also moved to London;6 there Jan Griffier (1652 or 1656-1718), who was in London from 1666, is traditionally thought to have etched his portrait.7 The posthumous sale of Boone’s collection was advertised in the London Gazette, 22 September 1692.
REFERENCES
J. Campo Weyerman, De levens-beschrijvingen der nederlandsche konst-schilders en konst-schilderessen, met een uytbreyding over de schilder-konst der ouden: Verrijkt met de konterfeytsels der voornamate konst-schilders en konst-schilderessen in koper gesneden door J. Houbraken, 4 vols., The Hague/Dordrecht 1729-69, IV, pp. 307-314; A. Griffiths, The Print in Stuart Britain 1603-1689, exh. cat. London (British Museum) 1998, under no. 183
Entry
Like the Man Eating from an Earthenware Pot (SK-A-1600), the other work by Daniel Boone in the Rijksmuseum, this painting in handling and the subject matter appears to owe as much to Egbert van Heemskerk I (c. 1634-1704) as to any Flemish artist of the time, though there is a connection with the Backgammon Players by David Teniers II (1610-1690) at Budapest of circa 1660.8 A source that both Van Heemskerk and Boone have in common may well have been the work of Adriaen van Ostade (1610-1685), active in Haarlem, for instance the Card Players in an Inn of 16559 or the Three Peasants Drinking of the early 1660s.10 Comparable in Van Heemskerk’s oeuvre is perhaps the Peasants Making Merry of 1660. 11
As with SK-A-1600, it is hazardous to propose a date of execution of the present picture as there are no dated extant paintings by Boone. But it may date from the 1660s or later. The support of west German or Netherlandish oak would have been ready for use in 1644 or more plausibly from ten year later.
A similar long, low table with a flagon on it was included in Boone’s Backgammon Players sold at Versailles on 25 November 1984; in that picture a barrel was placed in front of it.
Gregory Martin, 2022
Collection catalogues
1886, p. 102, no. 450c; 1887, p. 19, no. 146; 1903, p. 56, no. 560; 1976, p. 128, no. A 987
Citation
G. Martin, 2022, 'Daniël Boone, Men Playing Cards in a Tavern, c. 1660 - c. 1680', in Flemish Paintings in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.6126
(accessed 23 November 2024 10:18:32).