Lot 10: Joost van Geel Rotterdam 1631 - 1698 , A couple playing cards in an interior, observed by a second man oil on canvas, unlined Sparre frame type 2.

indistinctly signed upper left corner: G... oil on canvas, unlined Sparre frame type 2.

measurements note 40.5 by 38.7 cm.; 16 by 15 1/4 in.

Kristianstad, 1977, no. 20, as Dutch School, 17th Century, probably by Van Geel..

Granberg, 1885-6, no. 37;
Göthe, 1895, p. 18, no. 27, as Dutch School, 17th Century, formerly attributed to Ochtervelt;
Granberg, 1911-12, p. 69, no. 312;
C. Hofstede de Groot, in F. Thieme, U. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler, vol. XIII, Leipzig 1920, p. 323;
H. Miles, Dutch and Flemish ... Paintings (catalogue of the Glasgow Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow 1961, vol. 1, p. 59, under no. 1365;
Hasselgren, 1974, pp. 114-5, 120, reproduced p. 175.

Gustaf Adolf Sparre (1746-1794);
Sparre inv., 1794, no. 19.

Van Geel, son of a brandy distiller in Schiedam, was a vinegar merchant and poet as well as a painter of portraits and genre pieces such as the present work. Houbraken noted in his work the evident influence of Gabriel Metsu, and although there is no documentary evidence to support it, he is generally assumed to have been Metsu's pupil. The present work certainly clearly betrays Metsu's influence, but also that of Ter Borch, who influenced both artists. Whether or not Van Geel was a formal pupil of Metsu, who was only two years his senior, it is clear that Metsu's influence on him is palpable long after one might expect him to have completed an apprenticeship. The Sparre picture, undated like all his known works, reflects Metsu's paintings of the 1660s, when both artists were into their thirties.

Only a handful of genre pictures are known of Van Geel.υ1 His most famous work is the Nursery Visit in Rotterdam, Museum Boymans-van Beuningen. Another picture of the present subject, but of different composition, is the Card Players in an Interior in Glasgow, Art Museum and Gallery.υ2

The lavish interior depicted here may be a high-class brothel, and the young woman showing her hand of cards to her opponent while pointing with her hand suggests a demand for money. The mood of the picture is one of muted comical suggestiveness.

This picture was once attributed to Ochtervelt. It was Granberg was the first to suggest an attribution to Van Geel in 1912, and Horst Gerson who confirmed it.υ3

1. F.W. Robinson, in Gabriel Metsu (1629-1667), New York 1974, p. 68, lists "four or five known paintings".
2. See H. Miles under Literature, vol. 1, pp. 58-9, no. 1365., reproduced vol. 2, p. 47.
3. See under Literature. Gerson is cited by Hasslegren, and in the catalogue of the Kristianstad exhibition.