Egbert van Heemskerk I

Essay:

Egbert van Heemskerck was a Haarlem painter of genre and low-life scenes, best known for his views into dim, smokey taverns with boors merrymaking. Clearly influenced by the likes of Ostade, Teniers and Brouwer, Heemskerck was a pupil of Pieter de Grebber and was the stepbrother of the landscape painter Jan Wijnants.

Heemskerck became a member of the Haarlem Guild of St. Luke probably in the mid-1660s. In the early 1670s he established himself in London where he was very well received and remained there for the rest of his life. John Wilmot 2nd Earl Rochester the infamous libertine was his primary patron in England until Rochester's death in 1680. It appears that Rochester appreciated Heemskerck's bawdy and often satirical subjects, for instance The Quaker Meeting, c.1685, today in the Royal Collection. Heemskerck's paintings vary in subject matter from genre paintings to scenes depicting witches and apparitions, alchemists, and biblical subjects.

The works of Egbert van Heemskerck and his son, also called Egbert, are occasionally confused.

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With a muted palette Egbert van Heemskerck has represented a group of boors focused on their game of backgammon or tric-trac. In the dim tavern one man leans back on his stool (perhaps the worse for drink) while five others crowd the table, waiting for the crucial throw of the dice. Standing or leaning forward in their seats with glinting eyes, the tipsy tension of their game is brilliantly realised by Heemskerck.

Boors gambling, drinking and slumping over tavern tables was a popular subject in Dutch painting. Heemskerck's composition is close to several works by David Teniers II which include the man standing to the right shaking the dice while two or more spectators populate the scene on the far side of the table (for instance see The Tric-Trac Players, Polesden Lacy, National Trust, NT 1246499.2). Like Teniers or Brouwer, Heemskerck revels in the undignified visages of the Dutch peasants with their craggy features, bulbous noses and bad manners. Nonetheless, Heemskerck invites the viewer to participate in the scene and join the boors by imposing a narrow field of view and drawing our attention down to the gaming board.

Provenance:

Hortense Augusta Strettel née Levien (1868 - 1951);
Thence by descent in a private UK collection until 2025.