Interior of a Dutch Inn

Herman Frederik Carel Ten Kate 16 Feb 1822 - 26 Mar 1891

Summary

In the 19th century, Dutch artists and their viewers looked back nostalgically to the 1600s, known as the Golden Age of Dutch painting. Ten Kate, who lived in Amsterdam, made a good living recreating scenes from the time of the Eighty Years War (1568-1648, also known as the War of Dutch Independence), which were often set in a tavern. In this nostalgic reinterpretation, four soldiers in historical dress are playing dice around a wooden table, watched by two companions. A serving girl stands behind with a tray of drinks. A helmeted guard talks with a woman in the brightly lit room next door. A drum and some pieces of armour lie on the stone floor in the lower right corner, and a halberd leans against the wall.