Guardroom Interior with Soldiers
Smoking and Playing Cards

ca. 1640

Gerard ter Borch the Younger(Zwolle 1617 – 1681 Deventer)

34.9 x 49.5 cm

oil on panel
GB-101
Currently on view at: The National Museum ofChina, Beijing

How To Cite
Wieseman, Marjorie E. "Guardroom Interior with Soldiers Smoking and Playing Cards." In The Leiden
Collection Catalogue. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017.
https://www.theleidencollection.com/archive/.
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Guardroom Interior with Soldiers Smoking and Playing Cards
Page 2 of 9

In style and subject matter, Gerard ter Borch the Younger’s early genre

Comparative Figures

paintings differ markedly from the rarified domestic interiors of his mature
career. In the late 1630s and early 1640s, after his return to theNetherlands from travels first in England and then in southern Europe, hepainted a number of scenes featuring soldiers relaxing or playing cards inthe humble surroundings of a barn or rustic tavern. Although women areoccasionally present, these dim, untidy spaces are decidedly masculine,strewn with the utilitarian paraphernalia that signifies the nomadic
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

Fig 1. Gerard ter Borch,
Guardroom with Soldiers PlayingCards, ca. 1644, oil on panel,
29.4 x 37.5 cm, Stedelijk
Museum, Zwolle, inv. NK2741 (onloan from the Rijksdienst voor het
Cultureel Erfgoed)

guardroom scenes (depictions of soldiers at their leisure) came into vogue
in the 1620s and remained popular throughout the century.[1] The appetite
for the subject was linked to the Dutch Republic’s ongoing war for
independence from Spain; indeed, the years between the resumption ofhostilities at the end of the Twelve Year Truce (1621) and the Peace ofMünster (1648) coincided with the theme’s heyday. Unlike many of theartists who explored the theme, Ter Borch was intimately familiar with theeveryday lives of soldiers, as his native city of Zwolle was a garrison townthat played a strategic role in defending the eastern part of the Dutch
Republic against invasion during the war with Spain.

Fig 2. Adriaen Brouwer, Peasantsand Soldiers Playing Cards, ca.
1631–32, oil on panel, 33 x 43
cm, Alte Pinakothek, Munich, inv.
218, bpk, Berlin / Alte Pinakothek/ Art Resource, NY

Personal experience aside, Ter Borch may have been inspired in hischoice of subject matter by the guardroom scenes of Duyster and Codde,
which he could have seen during visits to Amsterdam in the early 1630s.
Ter Borch’s soldiers also resemble the travelers who populate thelandscapes of the Haarlem painter Pieter Molijn (1595–1661), with whom
he studied in 1634. Finally, his guardroom scenes recall the work of theFlemish painters Adriaen Brouwer (1605/6–38) and David Teniers theYounger (1610–90), who, during the 1630s in Antwerp, painted
comparable scenes of soldiers and card players in rustic interiors (fig 2).
Although there is no documentary proof that Ter Borch visited Antwerp, hecould easily have stopped there on his return from England in late 1635 orearly

1636

andbeeninspiredbythevividspontaneityand[2]uncompromising subject matter of the Flemish masters’ work.

Fig 3. Gerard ter Borch, An
Encampment of Soldiers PlayingCards, ca. 1640–45, oil on panel,
41.6 x 51 cm, Staatliche Museen
zu Berlin–PreußischerKulturbesitz, Gemäldegalerie,
Berlin, inv. 2081, bpk Bildagentur/ Gemäldegalerie, StaatlicheMuseen, Berlin, Germany / Jörg
P. Anders / Art Resource, NY

Guardroom Interior with Soldiers Smoking and Playing Cards depicts
three soldiers seated around a large drum that has been pressed into
© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Guardroom Interior with Soldiers Smoking and Playing Cards
Page 3 of 9service as a makeshift table. The man at the back smokes a long clay
pipe, while his companions play a game of cards. 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 in each of
his outstretched arms, thrusting them toward the better-dressedcavalryman with palpable urgency. A fourth soldier stands in the doorway
at left and turns to look back at the card players. In the left foreground is aheap of objects associated with a soldier’s life: a hide-covered trunk, acoat and hat, a cuirass and almain collar, a bandolier with containers for
gunpowder and fuses, and various bundles and bags. The purpose of thecurious tapering cylinder protruding from the lid of the trunk is unclear; 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 forsupporting the muskets while shooting.[3]Guardroom Interior with Soldiers Smoking and Playing Cards wasprobably painted around 1640 or slightly later, after Ter Borch had
returned to the Netherlands from his visit to Spain. Where exactly he might
have been living when he painted this work is not certain, but theconcentrated flurry of guardroom scenes that Ter Borch painted during theearly 1640s suggests that he might have settled in Amsterdam, where thetradition of such scenes by Duyster and Codde would have been moststrongly felt.[4] Works closely related to Guardroom Interior, such as theGuardroom with Soldiers Playing Cards (fig 1) and An Encampment ofSoldiers Playing Cards (fig 3), dated about 1644 and 1640–45
respectively, show that even at this early stage of his career Ter Borch
was experimenting with ways of modifying the interpretation of a given
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 bybrowns and grays and accentuated with just a few touches of red andbrilliant white. The occasionally summary treatment of figures andbackground elements in these paintings is contrasted by the beautifully
detailed still lifes of military accoutrements in the foreground.
Playing cards was a popular pastime in the seventeenth century, despite(or perhaps because of) its being considered disreputable; equated withcheating, gambling, drinking and sex, it aroused censure from civic andreligious authorities, even as it offered fertile ground for artists. Countless
Dutch guardroom scenes depict soldiers playing cards or other games of© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Guardroom Interior with Soldiers Smoking and Playing Cards
Page 4 of 9chance. Not only did this realistically portray how soldiers 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 wasanother dubious pastime and a subject of great public debate. From thetime of tobacco’s introduction into Europe at the end of the fifteenth
century, its physical and psychological advantages and disadvantages
were vociferously disputed.[7] In a military 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 paintings of the 1650s and 1660s, but by and large the polishedofficers and flamboyant trumpeters seen in these later paintings are little
more than a picturesque military presence, their actions more suited to thedrawing room than to a rough military encampment.[9]Several copies of Guardroom Interior are known; some situate identicalfigures in a landscape setting (fig 3), a variation that Gudlaugsson felt
reflected more the Flemish tradition of depicting military themes.[10] From
photographic evidence, none of these copies is of sufficient quality toindicate that Ter Borch had a role in its making.
-Marjorie E. Wieseman© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Guardroom Interior with Soldiers Smoking and Playing Cards
Page 5 of 9Endnotes
1. On the Dutch guardroom scene, see Carol Bigler Playter,Willem Duyster and Pieter Codde:
The “Duyster Weereldt” 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 theGentrification of Dutch Genre Painting (Doornspijk, 1998), 33–68; David Kunzle, From
Criminal to Courtier: The Soldier in Netherlandish Art, 1550–1672 (Leiden and Boston,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 zu
Berlin—Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, inv. 791C), is based on acontemporary painting by David Teniers the Younger (oil on panel, 28 x 37 cm, Musées
Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, 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 possiblethat Ter Borch became aware of Brouwer’s work while still in the Netherlands, as theFlemish painter stayed briefly in Amsterdam and Haarlem in about 1626–27 and works byhim might have been in circulation.
3. I am grateful to Jos Hilkhuijsen, curator at Het Legermuseum, Delft, for help in identifying themilitaria depicted in this painting.
4. See Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., “The Artistic Development of Gerard ter Borch,” in Arthur K.
Wheelock Jr. et al., Gerard ter Borch (Exh. cat. Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art;
Detroit, Detroit Institute of Arts, 2004–5) (Zwolle, 2005), 9.
5. Other guardroom scenes by Ter Borch include: Interior of an Inn, 1636(?), oil on panel, 30.6x 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 PlayingCards, ca. 1640–45, oil on panel, 41.6 x 51 cm (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin–PreußischerKulturbesitz, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, inv. 2081); and Soldiers Playing Cards before aRuin, 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 , Jahrbuch Preußischer Kulturbesitz:© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Guardroom Interior with Soldiers Smoking and Playing Cards
Page 6 of 9Sonderband 4 (Berlin, 1987), 117–37.
8. As noted by Nanette Salomon, Jacob Duck and the Gentrification of Dutch Genre Painting(Doornspijk, 1998), 42.
9. On the interpretation of Ter Borch’s later paintings with military subjects specifically, seeAlison McNeil Kettering, “Gerard ter Borch’s Military Men: Masculinity Transformed,” inThePublic and Private in Dutch Culture of the Golden Age , ed. Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. andAdele 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[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 the foreground”]; for £3, to Grego).
Joseph Grego (1843–1908) 2[2], London (his sale, Puttick and Simson, London, 11 June
1908, no. 96, as by 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 thecollection of Émile Péreire. However, no paintings by Ter Borch (or of this description) arelisted in sales of paintings from the Péreire collection held in 1868 or 1872; nor is there
mention of a painting fitting this description in T. Thoré, “Les cabinets d’amateurs à Paris:
Galerie de MM. Péreire,” Gazette des Beaux-Arts 6 (1864): 193–213, 297–317.

© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Guardroom Interior with Soldiers Smoking and Playing Cards
Page 7 of 92. Joseph Grego was a noted writer on art. His collecting interests centered on English
caricatures and European arms and armor.

Exhibition History
Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, January 2011–August 2015, on loan with the permanentcollection [lent by the present owner].
Beijing, National Museum of China, “Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces from The
Leiden Collection,” 17 June–3 September 2017 [lent by the present owner].

References
Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent
Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century Based on the Work of John Smith . 8 vols.
London, 1907–27. Translated from Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werkeder hervorragendsten höllandischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts . 10 vols. Esslingen andParis, 1907–28, 5:21, no. 42.
Gudlaugsson, Sturla J. Geraert ter Borch. 2 vols. The Hague, 1959–60, 1:44, pl. 20; 2:63,no. 20.

Versions

Versions 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 and measurements unknown, untraceable. Sturla J. Gudlaugsson, Geraert ter© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Guardroom Interior with Soldiers Smoking and Playing Cards
Page 8 of 9Borch, 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.

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, including translating the cylindrical protrusion of the trunk lid in the left
foreground into a hat resting on top of the trunk, relocating the hearth to the right, andreplacing 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 , oilon 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 ter Borch, 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 and measurements unknown, formerly E. Bolton, London, 1927.

Versions Notes

Technical Summary
The support, a single plank of horizontally grained, rectangular-shaped oak with a narrow woodaddition 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 thecenter of the right half of the composition has been repaired. There are no wax collection seals,
import stamps, stencils, paper labels, inscriptions, or panel maker’s marks along the panel orcradle reverse.
A ground has been thinly and evenly applied. Areas of less opaque paint reveal a red-orange
underlayer that is 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 and white highlights.
The painting is unsigned and undated.
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Guardroom Interior with Soldiers Smoking and Playing Cards
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No underdrawing is readily apparent in infrared images captured at 720 nanometers. In the Xradiograph, a radio-opaque area above the barrel on the left suggests an object such as acontainer of liquid was painted out during the paint stage.
The painting was cleaned and restored in 2005 and remains in an excellent state ofpreservation.[1]Technical Summary Endnotes

1. Entry based on a 2012 examination report by Jevon Thistlewood, paintings conservator,
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford.

© 2017 The Leiden Collection