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Notes
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We are in the middle of a card game. One figure stares directly at us, a look of apparently benign amusement on his face as he holds his hand close to his chest. By contrast his opponent is focused intently – perhaps even short-sightedly – on her hand, deliberating on how to play next. Judging from the coins spilling out of the man’s purse onto the table, there seems to be money at stake. Card playing was a controversial activity in seventeenth-century Holland, associated with laziness, greed, deceit and a lack of chastity, and artists often hinted at these themes in their paintings. However, whether there is an erotic charge or a moral message behind this picture is far from certain. The coins might be taken as suggestive of a commercial exchange, but there are no other hints of potential seduction or illicit love.
Title
A Young Man and a Girl playing Cards
Date
perhaps about 1645-50
Medium
Oil on canvas
Measurements
H 123.5 x W 104 cm
Accession number
NG1247
Acquisition method
Bought, 1888
Work type
Painting
