Willem Cornelisz Duyster

The Tric-trac Players

c. 1625

Inscriptions

  • signature, on the carpet (W and C ligated):WC DVYSTE
  • label, on the reverse of the frame:L’interieur d’une chambre dans laqu[...] sont qua[...] / Espagnols dont deux jouants au tric trac sur une tab[...] / couverte d’une riche tapis, un autre buvant un verre[..] / blanc et le quatrième vû dans le [...] sur la droit [...] / et s’accompagnent de la mandoline. / Ce tableau précieux dans ses details [...](The interior of a room in which there are four Spaniards, two of whom are playing tric-trac on a table covered with a fine carpet, another drinking from a glass of white, and the fourth seen from the [...] on the right and accompanying himself on the mandolin. This painting, precious for its details [...])
  • label, on the reverse of the frame:Ce tableau précieux dans ses details et d’une conservation / parfaite est regardé à juste titre comme / un des bons ouvrages du maître, vient de la collection de / Mr. Cromat, surintendant des finances de Monsieur / frère du Roi, il est numeroté au catalogue de sa vente 1[.] / et adjugé par le peintre expe. Lebrun au prise de 1787 liv. / Il est signé WDUYSTE.(This painting, precious for its details and in a perfect state of conservation, is rightly considered to be one of the master’s fine works. It comes from the collection of Mr Cromat, Superintendent of Finance of Monsieur, the king’s brother. It was numbered 1[.] in his sale, and was appraised at 1,787 livres by the connoisseur Lebrun. It is signed WDUYSTE.)

Technical notes

The support is an oval-shaped medium-weave canvas which has been lined twice. According to an old label that was on the back of the painting before the relining in 1903, the original support was a panel. A horizontal line in the paint layer, some 6 cm from the bottom edge, suggests that panel consisted of two horizontally joined planks. The off-white ground layer is thin and smooth. The paint was applied thinly and smoothly, with impasted highlights. The size of the sash of the figure on the left appears to have been reduced during the painting process.

Scientific examination and reports

  • technical report: I. Verslype, RMA, 25 oktober 2004

Condition

Fair. The surface of the paint layer is disturbed due to earlier conservation treatment. There is mild abrasion. The edges were overpainted and some details in the background have been strengthened. The varnish has yellowed.

Conservation

  • H. Heijdenrijk, 1903: canvas relined

Provenance

...; French collection, probably late 18th century;1Label on the back of the painting....; donated to the museum by Dr Abraham Bredius (1855-1946), Amsterdam, November 1887;2RANH, ARS, IS, inv. 167, no. 250 (8 November 1887, no. 2408); RANH, ARS, Kop, inv. 289, p. 160, no. 358 (14 November 1887). on loan to the Fondation Custodia, Paris, 1954-55; on loan to the Limburgs Museum, Venlo, since 2000

ObjectNumber: SK-A-1427

Credit line: Gift of A. Bredius, The Hague

The artist

Biography

Willem Cornelisz Duyster (Amsterdam 1599 - Amsterdam 1635)

Willem Cornelis Duyster, the son of a carpenter, was baptized in the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam on 30 August 1599. His surname is derived from the house ‘De Duystere Werelt’ (The dark world), in which he and his family lived from 1620 onwards. His teacher is unknown. It has been speculated that he studied with the portrait painter Cornelis van der Voort or with Barend van Someren. The suggestion that Pieter Codde was his teacher was based on the misinterpretation of a document from 1625 that reveals that Duyster and Codde had a quarrel at Meerhuysen, a country house rented by Van Someren. Duyster was also well-acquainted with the guardroom painter Simon Kick. Duyster and Kick married each other’s sisters in a double wedding on 5 September 1631, and both couples lived in ‘De Duystere Werelt’. Duyster died of the plague at the age of 35. He was buried in the Zuiderkerk on 31 January 1635.

His oeuvre consists of merry companies, guardroom scenes and portraits, close in style to those by Pieter Codde. Few of Duyster’s paintings are dated. Philips Angel praised his skill at painting fabrics in 1642.

Gerdien Wuestman, 2007

References
Angel 1642, p. 55; Houbraken II, 1719, p. 145; Bredius 1888a; Playter 1972, I, pp. 1-14, 23-35; Beaujean in Saur XXXI, 2002, pp. 343-44

Entry

Two extravagantly clad officers are watching a game of tric-trac. In the background are a man standing drinking, and a seated lutenist. The Persian carpet on the table and the costly materials of the costumes, especially of the two foreground figures, are depicted with a close eye for detail.3For the carpet see Ydema 1991, pp. 53, 150.

Tric-trac players often feature in Duyster’s paintings. Others that are thematically related to the one in the Rijksmuseum are an oval panel in St Petersburg and a rectangular work in London.4Hermitage; coll. cat. St Petersburg 1981, p. 129 (ill.); The National Gallery; coll. cat. London 1991, I, p. 127, II, pl. 110. The same young man was the model for one of the tric-trac players in the London painting and the one on the right in the present work. Duyster seems to have had a preference for oval or circular panels.5In addition to the one in St Petersburg there are the originally oval panel with card players in Munich, and the circular panels in Dublin and Lyon, all of which are illustrated in Rotterdam-Frankfurt 2004, pp. 65, 61, 63. Pieter Codde also used oval panels from time to time.6See his originally oval panel in 1628 in the Mauritshuis in The Hague; illustrated in Naarden 1996, p. 11.

Playter dates the Amsterdam work, with its bright colours and small, elongated figures in quasi-masquerade dress, to around 1624, slightly earlier than his more restrained paintings in St Petersburg and London, which are assumed to have been made in the second half of the 1620s.7Playter 1972, I, p. 79. For the dating of the works in London and St Petersburg see also MacLaren and Brown in coll. cat. London 1991, I, p. 127, and coll. cat. St Petersburg 1981, p. 129. Playter’s reasoning is convincing. Like the preceding work, this genre scene would have been painted around the middle of the decade.

A dim view was taken of tric-trac in the 17th century, which is why this painting has been interpreted as a depiction of idleness or the vicissitudes of life,8Amsterdam 1976, pp. 109-11, no. 22; for the iconography of tric-trac see also Luijten in Amsterdam 1997, pp. 204-06. but in contrast to a painting like Interior with Gamblers and Drinkers (anonymous, SK-A-1852) there does not appear to be any marked symbolic meaning embedded in this painting.9On this see also Playter 1972, I, pp. 78-84.

In 1888, Abraham Bredius described a label on the back that stated that the painting was transferred from panel to canvas.10Bredius 1888a, p. 194, and that the label probably disappeared when the canvas was relined in 1903. See Schaible 1983 for this process, which was popular in 18th- and 19th-century France. Unfortunately, it has proved impossible to identify the ‘Mr. Cromat, surintendant des finances de Monsieur frère du Roi’ who owned the painting according to the label on the back of the frame. It is possible that his name, which was copied from the other, damaged label on the frame, was misread.11The painting has not been found in the catalogues of the sales of the collectors Pierre Crozat (1661-1740) and Jules-David Cromot, Baron du Bourg (1725-87).

Gerdien Wuestman, 2007

See Bibliography and Rijksmuseum painting catalogues
See Key to abbreviations and Acknowledgements

This entry was published in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, I: Artists Born between 1570 and 1600, coll. cat. Amsterdam 2007, no. 64.

Literature

Bredius 1888a, p. 194; Playter 1972, I, p. 79, II, p. I

Collection catalogues

1891, p. 41, no. 304a; 1903, p. 91, no. 850; 1934, p. 90, no. 850; 1976, p. 207, no. A 1427; 2007, no. 64

Citation

G. Wuestman, 2007, 'Willem Cornelisz. Duyster, The Tric-trac Players, c. 1625', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.8366

(accessed 3 May 2025 18:51:50).

Footnotes

  • 1Label on the back of the painting.
  • 2RANH, ARS, IS, inv. 167, no. 250 (8 November 1887, no. 2408); RANH, ARS, Kop, inv. 289, p. 160, no. 358 (14 November 1887).
  • 3For the carpet see Ydema 1991, pp. 53, 150.
  • 4Hermitage; coll. cat. St Petersburg 1981, p. 129 (ill.); The National Gallery; coll. cat. London 1991, I, p. 127, II, pl. 110.
  • 5In addition to the one in St Petersburg there are the originally oval panel with card players in Munich, and the circular panels in Dublin and Lyon, all of which are illustrated in Rotterdam-Frankfurt 2004, pp. 65, 61, 63.
  • 6See his originally oval panel in 1628 in the Mauritshuis in The Hague; illustrated in Naarden 1996, p. 11.
  • 7Playter 1972, I, p. 79. For the dating of the works in London and St Petersburg see also MacLaren and Brown in coll. cat. London 1991, I, p. 127, and coll. cat. St Petersburg 1981, p. 129.
  • 8Amsterdam 1976, pp. 109-11, no. 22; for the iconography of tric-trac see also Luijten in Amsterdam 1997, pp. 204-06.
  • 9On this see also Playter 1972, I, pp. 78-84.
  • 10Bredius 1888a, p. 194, and that the label probably disappeared when the canvas was relined in 1903. See Schaible 1983 for this process, which was popular in 18th- and 19th-century France.
  • 11The painting has not been found in the catalogues of the sales of the collectors Pierre Crozat (1661-1740) and Jules-David Cromot, Baron du Bourg (1725-87).