Lot 38: Christian Ludwig Bokelmann (German, 1844-1894)

The players (Bis in den hellen Tag hinein - Die Spieler)
signed, inscribed and dated 'Bokelmann/Ddf 74'(lower left)
oil on canvas, unframed
48 1/4 x 61 in. (122.5 x 155 cm.)
Painted in 1874.

Hamburg, Hamburger Museum für Archäologie und die Geschichte Harburgs-Helms Museum, Christian Ludwig Bokelmann, 8 June-4 September 1994, no. 33.

Ex. cat., Christian Ludwig Bokelmann, Hamburg, 1994, pp. 26 and 54, no. 53 (illustrated).

Art Gallery and Museum, Salford.
Private Collection, Hamburg.
Private Collection, Berlin.

In this drama, Christian Ludwig Bokelmann shows a young father facing a bleak prospect after having gambled away his family's meagre fortune on an overnight game of cards. The scene is lent particular poignancy by the contrast between the innocent young girl seen playing with the instruments of the family's downfall, her distraught mother, and the stunned disbelief of her father.

Best known as a painter of powerful narratives, Bokelmann enjoyed great popularity not only in his native Germany, but also in England, where his themes found an obvious echo in Victorian society. The present work is one of Bokelmann's masterpieces, in which each prop -- the broken glass, the scattered cards, the father's white knuckles -- have been painted with extraordinary plasticity and in such a way to add weight to the painting's overall message.

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