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| Title | The Card Players | |
| Collection | Huddersfield Art Gallery | |
| Artist | Austin, Alfred R. (British artist, active 1870s-1880s) After Rombouts, Theodoor (Flemish painter and printmaker, 1597-1637) Previously attributed to after Teniers, David, II (Flemish painter, 1610-1690) |
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| Date | 1873 (dated) | |
| Signed | yes | |
| Description | The artist of this work, Alfred R. Austin, was the brother of the Dewsbury businessman who left this painting to the town. It is a copy of a work in the museum of Antwerp, attributed to the Fleming Theodoor Rombouts, made around 1630. It shows two soldiers engrossed in gambling over cards. The old people to the left and right of the scene seem to provide a moral commentary: the woman talks to a third man, perhaps warning him not to get involved. In the seventeenth century, card games were associated with the vices of laziness, greed and deception. | |
| Current Accession Number | KLMUS:180:1989 | |
| Inscription | front lr 'Musee d'Anvers A R Austin 1873' | |
| Subject | everyday life (card game); figure | |
| Measurements | 53.5 x 71.5 cm cm (estimate) | |
| Material | oil on canvas | |
| Acquisition Details | Transferred from the Corporation of Dewsbuy 1974. | |
| Provenance | Probably given by Alfred R. Austin to his brother Harry Austin, around 1873; bequeathed by Harry Austin to Dewsbury Corporation, 1903. | |
| Notes | The painting is a copy of the painting by Theodoor Rombouts in Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, inv. no. 358 illustrated in De Bruegel ŕ Rubens : l'école de peinture anversoise, 1550-1650, Antwerp, 1992, cat. no. 89, p. 202. In the Huddersfield card catalogue it is recorded that the author of the original is Teniers. Harry Austin (1858 - 1903), worked for Messrs James Austin & Sons (Dewsbury) Ltd. | |
| Rights Owner | Kirklees Metropolitan Council | |
| Author | Dr Phillippa Plock | |