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 augustus 2006
  • dendrochronology: P. Klein, RMA, 3 maart 2007

Provenance

…; anonymous sale [J. Fischer (Mainz) (†)], Amsterdam (C.F. Roos), 20 January 1885, no. 7, fl. 38, to C.F. Roos;1Copy RKD, where the buyer’s name is crossed out. from whom, fl. 45, to the museum, 18852NHA, ARS, Kop, inv. 289, p. 20, no. 75 (13 February 1885); NHA, ARS, Kop, inv. 289, p. 23, no. 80 (25 February 1885).

ObjectNumber: SK-A-987

The artist

Biography

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).3P. Biesboer et al., Painting in Haarlem 1500-1800: The Collection of the Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem 2006, p. 188. 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.4P. Biesboer et al., Painting in Haarlem 1500-1800: The Collection of the Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem 2006, pp. 493-94, nos. 190-92, for his three known, signed paintings. 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.5P. Biesboer et al., Painting in Haarlem 1500-1800: The Collection of the Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem 2006, p. 196. Sometime during the reign of King Charles II (1660-85), Boone also moved to London;6S. Kollmann, Niederländische Künstler und Kunst im London des 17. Jahrhunderts, Hildersheim/Zürich/New York 2000, p. 159, gives the date as shortly after 1665; ninety-nine paintings by him were offered at London auctions between 1689 and 1692 as calculated by S. Karst, ‘Off to a New Cockaigne: Dutch Migrant Artists in London 1660-1715’, Simiolus 37 (2013-14), pp. 25-60, esp. p. 32. there Jan Griffier (1652 or 1656-1718), who was in London from 1666, is traditionally thought to have etched his portrait.7Two etched portraits of Boone by Griffier are recorded; one, in A. Griffiths, The Print in Stuart Britain 1603-1689, exh. cat. London (British Museum) 1998, no. 183, is incorrectly identified, as it is after Terbrugghen at second-hand, see L.J. Slatkes and W. Franits, The Paintings of Hendrick ter Brugghen (1588-1629): Catalogue Raisonné, Amsterdam/Philadelphia 2007, p. 202, replica 7. A second ‘playing on a violin, with asses braying owls screeching’ was described as ‘very rare’ in the Edward Martin (†) sale, London (Sotheby’s), 23 June 1854, no. 690. 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 1660.8M. Klinge and D. Lüdke (eds.), David Teniers der Jüngere 1610-1690: Alltag und Vergnügen in Flandern, exh. cat. Karlsruhe (Staatlichen Kunsthalle Karlsruhe) 2005-06, no. 97. 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 16559Anonymous sale, London (Christie’s), 29 November 1974, no. 79. or the Three Peasants Drinking of the early 1660s.10Anonymous sale, London (Christie’s), 11 December 2002, no. 70. Comparable in Van Heemskerk’s oeuvre is perhaps the Peasants Making Merry of 1660. 11Anonymous sale, London (Phillips), 28 April 1987, no. 12.

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 27 April 2025 03:11:47).

Footnotes

  • 1Copy RKD, where the buyer’s name is crossed out.
  • 2NHA, ARS, Kop, inv. 289, p. 20, no. 75 (13 February 1885); NHA, ARS, Kop, inv. 289, p. 23, no. 80 (25 February 1885).
  • 3P. Biesboer et al., Painting in Haarlem 1500-1800: The Collection of the Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem 2006, p. 188.
  • 4P. Biesboer et al., Painting in Haarlem 1500-1800: The Collection of the Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem 2006, pp. 493-94, nos. 190-92, for his three known, signed paintings.
  • 5P. Biesboer et al., Painting in Haarlem 1500-1800: The Collection of the Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem 2006, p. 196.
  • 6S. Kollmann, Niederländische Künstler und Kunst im London des 17. Jahrhunderts, Hildersheim/Zürich/New York 2000, p. 159, gives the date as shortly after 1665; ninety-nine paintings by him were offered at London auctions between 1689 and 1692 as calculated by S. Karst, ‘Off to a New Cockaigne: Dutch Migrant Artists in London 1660-1715’, Simiolus 37 (2013-14), pp. 25-60, esp. p. 32.
  • 7Two etched portraits of Boone by Griffier are recorded; one, in A. Griffiths, The Print in Stuart Britain 1603-1689, exh. cat. London (British Museum) 1998, no. 183, is incorrectly identified, as it is after Terbrugghen at second-hand, see L.J. Slatkes and W. Franits, The Paintings of Hendrick ter Brugghen (1588-1629): Catalogue Raisonné, Amsterdam/Philadelphia 2007, p. 202, replica 7. A second ‘playing on a violin, with asses braying owls screeching’ was described as ‘very rare’ in the Edward Martin (†) sale, London (Sotheby’s), 23 June 1854, no. 690.
  • 8M. Klinge and D. Lüdke (eds.), David Teniers der Jüngere 1610-1690: Alltag und Vergnügen in Flandern, exh. cat. Karlsruhe (Staatlichen Kunsthalle Karlsruhe) 2005-06, no. 97.
  • 9Anonymous sale, London (Christie’s), 29 November 1974, no. 79.
  • 10Anonymous sale, London (Christie’s), 11 December 2002, no. 70.
  • 11Anonymous sale, London (Phillips), 28 April 1987, no. 12.