Guardroom Interior with Soldiers Smokingand Playing Cards
Gerard ter Borch the Younger(Zwolle 1617 – 1681 Deventer)ca. 1640
oil on panel
34.9 x 49.5 cm
GB-101

How to cite
Wieseman, Marjorie E. “Guardroom Interior with Soldiers Smoking and Playing Cards” (2017). In The Leiden Collection
Catalogue, 3rd ed. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. and Lara Yeager-Crasselt. New York, 2020–23.
https://www.theleidencollection.com/archive/ (archived December 2023).
A PDF of every version of this entry is available in this Online Catalogue's Archive, and the Archive is managed by apermanent URL. New versions are added only when a substantive change to the narrative occurs.

© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Guardroom Interior with Soldiers Smoking and Playing Cards
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In style and subject matter, Gerard ter Borch the Younger’s early genre paintings

Comparative Figuresdiffer markedly from the rarified domestic interiors of his mature career. In the late1630s and early 1640s, after his return to the Netherlands from travels first in
England and then in southern Europe, he painted a number of scenes featuringsoldiers relaxing or playing cards in the humble surroundings of a barn or rustictavern. Although women are occasionally present, these dim, untidy spaces are
decidedly masculine, strewn with the utilitarian paraphernalia that signifies thenomadic existence of a professional soldier (fig 1).
Formulated and initially popularized by the Amsterdam painters Pieter Codde(1599–1678) and Willem Duyster (1598/99–1635), Dutch guardroom scenes(depictions of soldiers at their leisure) came into vogue in the 1620s and remainedFig 1. Gerard ter Borch, Guardroomwith Soldiers Playing Cards, ca. 1644,
oil on panel, 29.4 x 37.5 cm, StedelijkMuseum, Zwolle, inv. NK2741 (onloan from the Rijksdienst voor het
Cultureel Erfgoed)

popular throughout the century.[1] The appetite for the subject was linked to theDutch Republic’s ongoing war for independence from Spain; indeed, the years
between the resumption of hostilities at the end of the Twelve Year Truce (1621) and
the Peace of Münster (1648) coincided with the theme’s heyday. Unlike many of theartists who explored the theme, Ter Borch was intimately familiar with the everyday
lives of soldiers, as his native city of Zwolle was a garrison town that played astrategic role in defending the eastern part of the Dutch Republic against invasion
during the war with Spain.
Personal experience aside, Ter Borch may have been inspired in his choice of subject
matter by the guardroom scenes of Duyster and Codde, which he could have seenFig 2. Adriaen Brouwer, Peasants andSoldiers Playing Cards, ca. 1631–32,
oil on panel, 33 x 43 cm, Alte
Pinakothek, Munich, inv. 218, bpk,
Berlin / Alte Pinakothek / Art
Resource, NY

during visits to Amsterdam in the early 1630s. Ter Borch’s soldiers also resemble thetravelers who populate the landscapes of the Haarlem painter Pieter Molijn(1595–1661), with whom he studied in 1634. Finally, his guardroom scenes recall thework of the Flemish painters Adriaen Brouwer (1605/6–38) and David Teniers theYounger (1610–90), who, during the 1630s in Antwerp, painted comparable scenes ofsoldiers and card players in rustic interiors (fig 2). Although there is no documentary
proof that Ter Borch visited Antwerp, he could easily have stopped there on his returnfrom England in late 1635 or early 1636 and been inspired by the vivid spontaneityand uncompromising subject matter of the Flemish masters’ work.[2]Guardroom Interior with Soldiers Smoking and Playing Cards depicts three soldiers
seated around a large drum that has been pressed into service as a makeshift table.
The man at the back smokes a long clay pipe, while his companions play a game ofFig 3. Gerard ter Borch, An
Encampment of Soldiers Playing Cards,
ca. 1640–45, oil on panel, 41.6 x 51
cm, Staatliche Museen zu
Berlin–Preußischer Kulturbesitz,Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, inv. 2081, bpk
Bildagentur / Gemäldegalerie,
Staatliche Museen, Berlin, Germany /Jörg P. Anders / Art Resource, NYcards. The soldier at the right is dressed in drab and rumpled garments; one stocking
has pooled around his ankle to reveal a bare and bony leg. He holds a playing card ineach of his outstretched arms, thrusting them toward the better-dressed cavalryman
with palpable urgency. A fourth soldier stands in the doorway at left and turns to look© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Guardroom Interior with Soldiers Smoking and Playing Cards
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back at the card players. In the left foreground is a heap of objects associated with asoldier’s life: a hide-covered trunk, a coat and hat, a cuirass and almain collar, abandolier with containers for gunpowder and fuses, and various bundles and bags.
The purpose of the curious tapering cylinder protruding from the lid of the trunk isunclear; it may have accommodated the crown of a hat packed inside. On the rearwall of the room is a rack with matchlock muskets, a pike, and furkets for supportingthe muskets while shooting.[3]Guardroom Interior with Soldiers Smoking and Playing Cards was probably painted
around 1640 or slightly later, after Ter Borch had returned to the Netherlands fromhis visit to Spain. Where exactly he might have been living when he painted this work
is not certain, but the concentrated flurry of guardroom scenes that Ter Borch painted
during the early 1640s suggests that he might have settled in Amsterdam, where thetradition of such scenes by Duyster and Codde would have been most strongly
felt.[4] Works closely related to Guardroom Interior, such as the Guardroom withSoldiers Playing Cards (fig 1) and An Encampment of Soldiers Playing Cards (fig 3),dated about 1644 and 1640–45 respectively, show that even at this early stage of hiscareer Ter Borch was experimenting with ways of modifying the interpretation of agiven theme.[5] All three paintings show a trio of players observed by a figure standing
to the side; all are executed in a restricted palette dominated by browns and grays andaccentuated with just a few touches of red and brilliant white. The occasionallysummary treatment of figures and background elements in these paintings iscontrasted by the beautifully detailed still lifes of military accoutrements in theforeground.
Playing cards was a popular pastime in the seventeenth century, despite (or perhaps
because of) its being considered disreputable; equated with cheating, gambling,
drinking and sex, it aroused censure from civic and religious authorities, even as it
offered fertile ground for artists. Countless Dutch guardroom scenes depict soldiers
playing cards or other games of chance. Not only did this realistically portray howsoldiers relaxed while awaiting the next call to arms, but it also alluded to the risky,
unpredictable nature of a soldier’s life on and off the battlefield.[6] Smoking tobacco
was another dubious pastime and a subject of great public debate. From the time of
tobacco’s introduction into Europe at the end of the fifteenth century, its physical andpsychological advantages and disadvantages were vociferously disputed.[7] In amilitary context, however, smoking could be considered restorative, and its use
justified among soldiers and sailors who labored under stressful conditions.[8]Ter Borch continued to incorporate soldiers into his elegant domestic genre paintingsof the 1650s and 1660s, but by and large the polished officers and flamboyant
trumpeters seen in these later paintings are little more than a picturesque military© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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presence, their actions more suited to the drawing room than to a rough military
encampment.[9]Several copies of Guardroom Interior are known; some situate identical figures in alandscape setting (fig 3), a variation that Gudlaugsson felt reflected more the Flemish
tradition of depicting military themes.[10] From photographic evidence, none of thesecopies is of sufficient quality to indicate that Ter Borch had a role in its making.

- Marjorie E. Wieseman, 2017

© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Guardroom Interior with Soldiers Smoking and Playing Cards
Page 5 of 8Endnotes
1. On the Dutch guardroom scene, see Carol Bigler Playter, Willem Duyster and Pieter Codde: The “DuysterWeereldt” of Dutch Genre Painting, c. 1625–1635 (Cambridge, 1972); Ellen Borger, De Hollandse
kortegaard: Geschilderde wachtlocalen uit de Gouden Eeuw (Exh. cat. Vestingmuseum, Naarden, 1996)(Zwolle 1996); Nanette Salomon, Jacob Duck and the Gentrification of Dutch Genre Painting(Doornspijk, 1998), 33–68; David Kunzle, From Criminal to Courtier: The Soldier in Netherlandish Art,1550–1672 (Leiden, 2002), passim; and Jochai Rosen, Soldiers at Leisure: The Guardroom Scene in
Dutch Genre Painting of the Golden Age (Amsterdam, 2008).
2. Ter Borch’s Consultation, dated 1635 (oil on panel, 34.5 x 45.7 cm, Staatliche Museen zuBerlin—Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, inv. 791C), is based on a contemporary
painting by David Teniers the Younger (oil on panel, 28 x 37 cm, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts deBelgique, Brussels, inv. 1459). See Sturla J. Gudlaugsson, Geraert ter Borch, 2 vols. (The Hague,1959–60), 1: 30–31; 2: 55–56, no. 4. It is also possible that Ter Borch became aware of Brouwer’s work
while still in the Netherlands, as the Flemish painter stayed briefly in Amsterdam and Haarlem in about
1626–27 and works by him might have been in circulation.
3. I am grateful to Jos Hilkhuijsen, curator at Het Legermuseum, Delft, for help in identifying the militaria
depicted in this painting.
4. See Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., “The Artistic Development of Gerard ter Borch,” in Arthur K. Wheelock
Jr., ed., Gerard ter Borch (Exh. cat. Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art; Detroit, Detroit Instituteof Arts; Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum) (Zwolle, 2004), 9.
5. Other guardroom scenes by Ter Borch include: Interior of an Inn, 1636(?), oil on panel, 30.6 x 36.8 cm(Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen, inv. 818.1.10); Cavaliers, 1638(?), oil on panel, 33.4 x 42.5 cm(Victoria and Albert Museum, London, inv. CAI.84); Tric-trac Players, ca. 1640, oil on panel, 42 x 56
cm (Kunsthalle, Bremen, inv. 135-1856); Guardroom with Soldiers Playing Cards, ca. 1644, oil on panel,
29.4 x 37.5 cm (Stedelijk Museum, Zwolle, inv. NK2741 [on loan from the Rijksdienst voor het
Cultureel Erfgoed]); Soldiers Playing Cards, ca. 1640–45, oil on panel, 41.6 x 51 cm (Staatliche Museenzu Berlin–Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, inv. 2081); and Soldiers Playing Cards
before a Ruin, ca. 1643, oil on panel, 42 x 61.5 cm (collection Dr. H. Schaeffer, Berlin, 1929). See
Sturla J. Gudlaugsson, Geraert ter Borch, 2 vols. (The Hague, 1959–60), 2: 56–57, 59–60, and 64–66,
nos. 6, 11, 12, 21, 24, and 25, respectively.
6. Sturla J. Gudlaugsson, Geraert ter Borch, 2 vols. (The Hague, 1959–60), 1:45.
7. See Ivan Gaskell, “Tobacco, Social Deviance, and Dutch Art in the Seventeenth Century,” inHolländische Genremalerei im 17. Jahrhundert: Symposium Berlin 1984. Edited by Henning Bock andThomas W. Gaehtgens, special issue no. 4, Jahrbuch Preussischer Kulturbesitz (1987): 117–37.
8. As noted by Nanette Salomon, Jacob Duck and the Gentrification of Dutch Genre Painting (Doornspijk,© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Guardroom Interior with Soldiers Smoking and Playing Cards
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9. On the interpretation of Ter Borch’s later paintings with military subjects specifically, see Alison
McNeil Kettering, “Gerard ter Borch’s Military Men: Masculinity Transformed,” in The Public andPrivate in Dutch Culture of the Golden Age, ed. Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. and Adele Seeff (Newark, Del.,2000), 100–22.
10. Sturla J. Gudlaugsson, Geraert ter Borch, 2 vols. (The Hague, 1959–60), 1:44.

ProvenancePossibly Émile Péreire (1800–75), Paris.[1]Barron James Grahame, F. S. A., of Morphie (1792–1877), Kincardinshire (his sale, Sotheby’s, London,
8 February 1878, no. 91 [“Dutch School, The Guard Room, four men playing at cards, armour in theforeground”]; for £3, to Grego).
Joseph Grego (1843–1908) [2], London (his sale, Puttick and Simson, London, 11 June 1908, no. 96, asby Jacob Duck; for £10.10, to McLean).
[F. Kleinberger, Paris, by 1912].
(Sale, Musée Galliera, Paris, 28 November 1972, no. 16, as by Jacob Duck, for 38,000 francs).
(Sale, Christie’s, London, 5 July 1985, no. 25).
(Sale, Christie’s, Amsterdam, 11 May 2005, no. 63 [Johnny van Haeften, Ltd., London, 2005].
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2005.

Provenance Notes

1. The painting was described in the 1972 Musée Galliera sale catalogue as from the collection of ÉmilePéreire. However, no paintings by Ter Borch (or of this description) are listed in sales of paintings fromthe Péreire collection held in 1868 or 1872; nor is there mention of a painting fitting this description inT. Thoré, “Les cabinets d’amateurs à Paris: Galerie de MM. Péreire,” Gazette des Beaux-Arts 6 (1864):
193–213, 297–317.
2. Joseph Grego was a noted writer on art. His collecting interests centered on English caricatures andEuropean arms and armor.

Exhibition History
Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, January 2011–August 2015, on loan with the permanent collection [lent© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Guardroom Interior with Soldiers Smoking and Playing Cards
Page 7 of 8by the present owner].
Beijing, National Museum of China, “Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces from The LeidenCollection,” 17 June–3 September 2017 [lent by the present owner].
Shanghai, Long Museum, West Bund, “Rembrandt, Vermeer and Hals in the Dutch Golden Age:
Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection,” 23 September 2017–25 February 2018 [lent by the presentowner].

References
Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters ofthe Seventeenth Century Based on the Work of John Smith. Edited and translated by Edward G. Hawke, 5:21, no. 42. 8 vols. London, 1907–28. Originally published as Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis
der Werke der hervorragendsten höllandischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts. 10 vols. Esslingen andParis, 1907–28.
Gudlaugsson, Sturla J. Geraert ter Borch. 2 vols. The Hague, 1959–60, 1:44, pl. 20; 2:63, no. 20.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Guardroom Interior with Soldiers Smoking and Playing Cards.” In Rembrandtand His Time: Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection. Edited by Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 124, no. 52,184, no. 52. Translated by Li Ying. Exh. cat. Beijing, National Museum of China. Beijing, 2017.
Long Museum, West Bund. Rembrandt, Vermeer and Hals in the Dutch Golden Age: Masterpieces fromThe Leiden Collection. Exh. cat. Shanghai, Long Museum, West Bund. Shanghai, 2017, 132, 134–35.

VersionsVersions and Copies
1. After Gerard ter Borch, Cardplaying Soldiers, support and measurements unknown, formerly dealer
Guido Arnot, London, 1920 (as by Jan van Huchtenberg). Locates the figures in an outdoor setting.
Sturla J. Gudlaugsson, Geraert ter Borch, 2 vols. (The Hague, 1959–60), 2:63, no. 20.a.

2. After Gerard ter Borch, A Guardroom Interior with Soldiers Smoking and Playing Cards, support andmeasurements unknown, untraceable. Sturla J. Gudlaugsson, Geraert ter Borch, 2 vols. (The Hague,1959–60), 2:63, no. 20.b.

3. After Gerard ter Borch, A Guardroom Interior with Soldiers Smoking and Playing Cards, oil on panel, 47
x 63 cm, formerly dealer K. Hermsen, The Hague, 1930; sale, Paris, 5 May 1947, no. 72. Costumes
updated to 1650s. Sturla J. Gudlaugsson, Geraert ter Borch, 2 vols. (The Hague, 1959–60), 2:63, no.
20.c.
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4. After Gerard ter Borch, Cardplaying Soldiers, oil on panel, 64 x 72 cm, formerly dealer J. Goudstikker,
Amsterdam, 1914–17; collection Cremers, The Hague, 1918. Numerous variations in details, includingtranslating the cylindrical protrusion of the trunk lid in the left foreground into a hat resting on top ofthe trunk, relocating the hearth to the right, and replacing the doorway at left with an arched opening.
Sturla J. Gudlaugsson, Geraert ter Borch, 2 vols. (The Hague, 1959–60), 2:63, no. 20.d.

5. After Gerard ter Borch, A Guardroom Interior with Soldiers Smoking and Playing Cards, oil on canvas,
37 x 49 cm, formerly dealer J. Böhler, Munich, 1955. Sturla J. Gudlaugsson, Geraert ter Borch, 2 vols.
(The Hague, 1959–60), 2:63, no. 20.e.

6. After Gerard ter Borch, A Guardroom Interior with Soldiers Smoking and Playing Cards, oil on panel, 35
x 48 cm, formerly sale, Brussels, 22/23 December 1950, lot 243. Sturla J. Gudlaugsson, Geraert terBorch, 2 vols. (The Hague, 1959–60), 2:63–64, no. 20.f.

7. After Gerard ter Borch, A Guardroom Interior with Soldiers Smoking and Playing Cards, support andmeasurements unknown, formerly E. Bolton, London, 1927.

Technical Summary
The support, a single plank of horizontally grained, rectangular-shaped oak with a narrow wood addition
along the lower edge, has no bevels. The thinned panel has had narrow wood shims attached to all four sides,
and the enlarged support has been cradled. A horizontal split along the center of the right half of thecomposition has been repaired. There are no wax collection seals, import stamps, stencils, paper labels,
inscriptions, or panel maker’s marks along the panel or cradle reverse.
A ground has been thinly and evenly applied. Areas of less opaque paint reveal a red-orange underlayer thatis indicative of a light red ground. The paint has been applied with transparent glazes through the red-orange
jacket and trousers, and more thickly, with no obvious brushmarks or impasto, through the flesh tones andwhite highlights.
The painting is unsigned and undated.
No underdrawing is readily apparent in infrared images captured at 720 nanometers. In the X-radiograph, aradio-opaque area above the barrel on the left suggests an object such as a container of liquid was painted out
during the paint stage.
The painting was cleaned and restored in 2005 and remains in an excellent state of preservation.[1]Technical Summary Endnotes

1. Entry based on a 2012 examination report by Jevon Thistlewood, paintings conservator, AshmoleanMuseum, University of Oxford.
© 2024 The Leiden Collection