A Guard Room Scene with Figures Conversing
Hendrick van Steenwijk, the younger, Flemish, about 1580 - 1649
1628
Oil on panel
Overall: 22 1/4 × 28 3/4 in. (56.5 × 73 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Gift of Jane and Raphael Bernstein
2010.84.174
Geography
Place Made: Belgium, Europe
Period
1600-1800
Object Name
Painting
Research Area
Painting
Nazi-Era Provenance Research
Not on view
Label
In a darkened stone room, a company of men gathers, harshly illuminated in candlelight. Best known for his paintings of fictive architectural interiors, the Flemish painter Hendrik van Steenwijk included diminutive figures carrying out everyday actions. The artist often drew on prints, like those in this exhibition, for his painted compositions. Almost lost in the shadows, the gathered soldiers appear small, giving them a sense of vulnerability. A presence in European society in this period, soldiers represented a distinct social group. Rather than shown in battle, the soldiers pause in a moment of rest to sit and converse with one another, restoring a sense of humanity to these actors of war.
From the 2023 exhibition Recording War: Images of Violence 1500 – 1900, curated by Elizabeth Rice Mattison, Andrew W. Mellon Associate Curator of Academic Programming
Course History
ARTH 46, Northern Baroque Art, Joy Kenseth, Spring 2015
Anthropology 3.01, Introduction to Anthropology, Charis Ford Morrison Boke 1, Summer 2023
Studio Art 27.01/28.01/74.01, Printmaking I/II/III, Josh Dannin, Summer 2024
Exhibition History
Ivan Albright Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, October 20, 2011.
Recording War: Images of Violence, 1500-1900, Ivan Albright Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, May 20-December 9, 2023.
The Golden Age: 17th century Art in The Netherlands, Northern Baroque Art, Art History 46, Joy Kenseth, Teaching Exhibition, Ivan Albright Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, March 31-May 31, 2015.
Provenance
Bob Haboldt; sold to Jane and Raphael Bernstein, Ridgewood, New Jersey, March 29th, 1989; given to present collection, 2010.
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