Lot 1774
WILLEM CORNELISZ. DUYSTER (1599-1635)
MEN GAMING AT A TABLE
Oil on panel, oval
32.5 x 24cm.
Provenance: By descent in the Moffatt family of Goodrich Court, Herefordshire
This composition, which can be dated to c.1625-1630, relates to a work currently ascribed to Pieter Codde in Oslo (Nasjonalmuseet) and to another, described as a copy after Duyster, in the Hallwyl Collection, Stockholm (`Four Officers playing Tric-trac`, 40 x 32.5cm.). The Oslo variant is now listed on the RKD database as `after Willem Duyster`.
It would seem that this picture is an autograph version from which the Oslo and Hallwyl versions were copied.
Walther Bernt (The Netherlandish Painters of the Seventeenth Century, Munich/London, 1948/1969) suggests that Duyster was a pupil of Codde. He notes that Duyster's works generally comprise a few, brightly lit figures with an elegance derived from clearly coloured silk garments in sharp focus. Like Dirck Hals, he pays little attention to detailed backgrounds in his interiors but his later works, with a predominance of brown tones, can include more figures. A low viewpoint can enhance the apparent height of his figures.
We are very grateful to Dr. Fred Meijer and to Cynthia Osiecki (Oslo) for their assistance with the cataloguing of this picture.
