Page:Hofstede de Groot catalogue raisonné, Volume 1, 1908.djvu/572

548 PIETER DE HOOCH SECT. 261. Soldier and Card-Players. A travel- worn soldier, who has taken up his quarters in a peasant's cottage, sits, pipe in hand, conversing with a woman who brings him a glass of wine and a jug. Behind him an old woman and a man are seated at a table playing cards. The soldier's armour and leathern trunk lie in the foreground. Signed ; canvas, ii inches by 27 inches. Sale. Bugge, Copenhagen, August 21, 1837, No. 355. 262. The Card-Players. At a table beside a window in an interior sits a young woman, seen in full light, who is playing cards with a man, seated in shadow. Beside the man stands a servant-girl, pouring Spanish wine into a glass ; her figure also is in half light. The sun throws a shadow of the window-frame upon the wall. Signed at the foot of the back wall, " P. D. H. " ; canvas, 26| inches by 23 inches. Described by Ch. Blanc, Le Tresor de la Curiosite, ii. 493, and by Havard (131. 0- Sales. Comte de Morny, Paris, May 24, 1852, No. 10. Due de Morny, Paris, May 31, 1865 (12,700 francs). Pastor, Geneva (18,800 francs). 262*7. Backgammon Players. Backgammon players are in a room with painted glass in the windows. A bird-cage hangs from the ceiling ; at the back is a curtained bed. Signed ; panel, 25 inches by 18^ inches. Sale. Vienna, February 25, 1869. 263. Soldiers playing Cards. Two soldiers, one of them wearing a cuirass, sit playing cards. To the left stands a woman with a laughing child in her arms, and in the foreground, near her, is a little girl with a dog. A bed with curtains, a cupboard, and some domestic utensils stand in the background. Signed in full in the lower left-hand corner ; canvas, 24 inches by 30^ inches. In the Salamanca Gallery, 1867. Afterwards in the collection of Serafin Martinez (see Havard, 131, 2). Sale. V. Bauchau and others, Brussels, February 3, 1874, No. 34. 264. Card-Players. Sm. 26. A soldier, with a cuirass and a large black hat, sits at a table with his back to the spectator. He is about to play the ace of spades, which he holds in his right hand. On his right another man, in a buff coat seen in profile, has laid his hand on the table beside the cards ; his broad-brimmed grey hat and a red cloth lie on a stool beside him. In the background a young girl stands filling a pipe. On the right-hand wall hangs a picture in shadow. To the left, also in shadow, is a mirror in a slanting position. The walls are of a neutral grey. The colouring of the picture is good, but the hands are weak in drawing. Signed on the back of the cuirassier's chair, "P. D. H." ; panel, 20 inches by 18 inches.