The Backgammon Players
Artist
Theodoor Rombouts
Flemish, 1597–1637
Date1634
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensionsoverall: 63 1/4 × 92 7/16 in. (160.7 × 234.8 cm)
frame: 76 1/2 × 105 1/2 × 3 1/4 in. (194.3 × 268 × 8.3 cm)
frame: 76 1/2 × 105 1/2 × 3 1/4 in. (194.3 × 268 × 8.3 cm)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineGift of E. Graham Flanagan, Charles R. Flanagan, and Mrs. Rosemond Flanagan Wagner in memory of their father E. G. Flanagan
Object numberGL.57.2.1
On View
Not on viewProvenanceCreated Antwerp, Flanders [present day Belgium], 1634. [Galerie van Diemen, Berlin, before 1926]; [Eduard Plietzsch (1886–1961), Berlin, by 1926]. Private collection, Cologne (possibly Plietzsch) [1]. [Eduard Plietzsch, Cologne, before 1956]; E. Graham Flanagan, Greenville, NC; loaned to NCMA, 1957– 1963; given to NCMA, 1963 [2].
[1] It is possible that this private collector in Cologne was Plietzsch himself, who was an art historian, dealer, and collector. Shortly after World War I, he became director of the Galerie van Diemen in Berlin and then in 1933 established himself as an independent dealer, relocating to Cologne in 1952. It is also possible that August Neuerburg (d. 1944), a cigarette factory owner with locations in Cologne, Dresden, and Hamburg, and a known collector of Caravaggesque paintings, owned the Rombouts before it went back to Plietzsch.
[2] Loaned by Flanagan to NCMA 1957–1963 as partial and promised gift; fully gifted in 1963.
[1] It is possible that this private collector in Cologne was Plietzsch himself, who was an art historian, dealer, and collector. Shortly after World War I, he became director of the Galerie van Diemen in Berlin and then in 1933 established himself as an independent dealer, relocating to Cologne in 1952. It is also possible that August Neuerburg (d. 1944), a cigarette factory owner with locations in Cologne, Dresden, and Hamburg, and a known collector of Caravaggesque paintings, owned the Rombouts before it went back to Plietzsch.
[2] Loaned by Flanagan to NCMA 1957–1963 as partial and promised gift; fully gifted in 1963.
Published ReferencesA. von Schneider, Caravaggio und die Niederländer (Marbury: Verlag des kunstgeschichtlichen Seminars, 1933), 109,138, illus. pl. 44b.
Domien Roggen, “De chronologie der werken van Theodoor Rombouts,” Gentsche bijdragen tot de kunstgeschiedenis 2 (Antwerpen: De Sikkel, 1935), 183.
W. R. Valentiner, "In the Sphere of Rubens," North Carolina Museum of Art Bulletin 1, no. 1 (Spring 1957), discussed 8-9; listed (with references) in "Registrar's Report of New Acquisitions," 25, illus. (b-w) fig. 4.
Raleigh: The News and Observer (February 3, 1957).
"Acquisitions," North Carolina Museum of Art Bulletin 4, nos. 2 and 3 (Winter-Spring 1964), mentioned 7, listed 59.
Benedict Nicholson, The International Caravaggesque Movement (New York: Phaidon Press, 1979), 94, 244.
Edgar Peters Bowron, ed., Introduction to the Collections (Chapel Hill: published for the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, by The University of North Carolina Press, 1983), illus. (b-w) 137.
Benedict Nicolson and Luisa Vertova, Caravaggism in Europe, vol. 1 (Torino: Allemandi, 1990), p. 165, vol. 3 fig. 1027 (b-w)
Hans Vlieghe, "Theodoor Rombouts en zijn Gezin Geportretteerd," Leids Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 8 (1990), 149, 151, 155n21, 153, fig. 7 (b-w).
Introduction to the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1992), illus. (b-w) 117.
Guy C. Bauman and Walter A. Liedtke, selected by, Flemish Paintings in America: A Survey of Early Netherlandish and Flemish Paintings in the Public Collections of North America, Arnout Balis, Carl Van de Velde and Hans Vlieghe, eds., Flandria Extra Muros series (Antwerp: Fonds Mercator, 1992), 239, 240, illus. (color) 239, fig. 75, detail (color) 240.
Petter C. Sutton, et al., The Age of Rubens (exhibition catalogue) (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; The Toledo Museum of Art, 1993), 67–68, fig. 78 (b-w) (catalogue only, not in exhibition).
Sophie Raux, "L'Echanson de Theodore Rombouts: une Allegorir de la Temperance Devoilee," Gazette des Beaux-Arts (April 1993), vol.121, issue 6
Hans Vlieghe, "Rombouts, Theodoor," in The Dictionary of Art, vol. 26 (1996), 746–747.
Dennis P. Weller, et al, Sinners and Saints, Darkness and Light: Caravaggio and His Dutch and Flemish Followers (exhibition catalogue) (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1998), cat. no. 34, illus. (color) 184, detail (color) 6.
"Sinners and Saints, Darkness and Light: Caravaggio and His Dutch and Flemish Followers," North Carolina Museum of Art Preview and Calendar of Events (September/October 1998), illus. (b-w) 5.
M. Therese Southgate, MD., "The Cover," JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association 280, no. 19 (November 18, 1998), discussed 1644, illus. (color) cover.
Dennis Weller, entry for The Backgammon Players, in North Carolina Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections, Rebecca Martin Nagy, ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1998), 87, 90, illus. (color) 90.
"Deaccessions and Loans." North Carolina Museum of Art Annual Report (1998-99), illus. (b-w) 16.
Arthur Flowers and Anthony Curtis, The Art of Gambling Through the Ages (Las Vegas: Huntington Press, 2000), 92, illus. (color) 93.
Irene Schaudies, “Trimming Rubens’ Shadow: New Light on the Mediation of Caravaggio in the Southern Netherlands,” Nederlands kunsthistorisch jaarboek 55 (2004), 359, 366n102.
Dennis P. Weller, Seventeenth-Century Dutch and Flemish Paintings [Systematic Catalogue of the Collection] (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 2009), cat. no. 60, illus. (color) 288, also mentioned xi.
Dennis P. Weller, entry for The Backgammon Players, in North Carolina Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 2010), 192, illus. (color) 193.
Stijn Alsteens and Adam Eaker, Van Dyck: The Anatomy of Portraiture (exhibition catalogue) (New York: The Frick Collection in association with Yale University Press, 2016), briefly discussed 109, illus. (color) 107, fig. 68 (catalogue only, not in exhibition).
Carolyn Miner, ed., In Pursuit of Caravaggio (Turin: Allemandi, 2016), mentioned 9.
Frederica Van Dam et al., Theodoor Rombouts: Virtuoso of Flemish Caravaggism (exhibition catalogue) (Ghent: Museum voor Schone Kunsten, 2023), 20, 34, 71, 156, cat. no. 20, illus (color) 73 (fig. 53), and 158, detail 28 (fig.4).
Exhibition HistoryEssen, Germany, Villa Hügel, “Ausstellung von Meisterwerken aus deutschen Privatbesitz,” 1952.
Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "Sinners and Saints, Darkness and Light: Caravaggio and His Dutch and Flemish Followers," September 27- December 13, 1998; Milwaukee, WI, Milwaukee Art Museum, January 29-April 18, 1999; Dayton, OH, The Dayton Art Institute, May 8-July 18, 1999, cat. no. 34, illus. (color) 184, detail (color) 6.
Williamsburg, VA, Muscarelle Museum of Art at the College of William and Mary, “In the Light of Caravaggio: Dutch and Flemish Paintings from Southeastern Museums,” February 10–May 13, 2018.
Gent, Belgium, Museum voor Schone Kunsten, "Theodoor Rombouts, Virtuoso of Flemish Caravaggism," January 21-April 24, 2023.
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