Description
The game of backgammon has a long and popular history which can be traced back many centuries. The version of the game as it is played in modern times first appeared in the 1400s under various names. Its current appellation was coined around the same time as the date of this painting. Backgammon was exceptionally popular in the 1600s, and was often played for money or other wagers. The two men on the left side of this painting are clearly involved in a high stakes game of backgammon. A three-man cluster has gathered to watch them lay their bets, while another tallies their points on a scoreboard. The young lady in the right corner of the room otherwise surrounded by men and the older women who looks down on the game of backgammon from a window, both indicate that the interior presented in this painting is probably the gaming room of a brothel. Courtesans often worked out of such game rooms, providing further entertainment for men. Depictions of games, like procurement scenes, often symbolized moralizing virtues. Games were considered at best folly and at worst immoral. Backgammon was often used to represent the foolishness or wickedness of betting and wasting one's time.
Provenance
Philippe II, Duke of Orléans (1674–1723), Regent of France (1674-1723); Louis I Duke of Orléans (1703–1752) (1723-1752); Louis Philippe I (1725–1785), Duke of Orléans (1752-1785); Louis-Philippe II (1747–1793), Duke of Orléans / Philippe Égalité (1785-1792); Brought to London by Thomas Moore Slade, (exhibited for sale in the Royal Academy, London, April 1793) (1792-1793); George Hibbert (1757–1837), London, England; Thomas Penrice (d. 1816), Great Yarmouth, England, by inheritance to John Penrice (-1816); John Penrice Sr. (1787-1844), sold, Christie's (1816-1844); (Sale: Christie's, London, England, 07/06/1844, to Farrer) (July 6, 1844); Farrer (1844-); Private collection, sold, Christie's, London (-1925); (Sale: Christie's, London, England, 07/17/1925, no. 119 through S. A. Hecht, London, England to Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Wise) (July 17, 1925); Mr. and Mrs. Samuel D. Wise (Cleveland, Ohio), by gift to the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1943 (1925-1943); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1943-)
Accession Number
1943.377
Medium
oil on wood, transferred to canvas
Dimensions
Framed: 82 x 102 x 9 cm (32 5/16 x 40 3/16 x 3 9/16 in.); Unframed: 59 x 80.6 cm (23 1/4 x 31 3/4 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel D. Wise
Tags
Painting Baroque (1600–1750) Oil Painting Canvas Flemish
Background & Context
Background Story
The Game of Backgammon depicts peasants engaged in one of the most popular leisure activities of 17th-century Flanders. Backgammon — a game of chance and skill — was a common fixture of village inns and taverns, and Teniers renders the scene with the same earthy realism that characterizes his other peasant subjects. The players' concentration, the kibitzers' commentary, and the rustic setting all contribute to a scene of rural leisure that is both specific in its details and universal in its subject. The transfer from wood panel to canvas, a common conservation practice, has preserved the painting while slightly altering its original luminous surface quality.
Cultural Impact
Board games were among the most popular subjects in Flemish genre painting because they allowed artists to depict the full range of human emotion — concentration, frustration, triumph, and cheating — within a single composition. Teniers' backgammon scene participates in this tradition while maintaining the specific social context that distinguishes Flemish genre painting from the more general moral allegories of other national schools.
Why It Matters
Game of Backgammon is Teniers' rustic gaming scene: peasants concentrated on dice and board, the full drama of chance and skill played out in a village setting. The painting captures the universal appeal of board games — the focus, the stakes, the kibitzers — in a specifically Flemish context.
