The Messenger

A messenger has just come in with a letter, and the game at the table stops. An officer and a young woman are playing backgammon. She was about to throw the dice, and his face has already turned worried, as if he expects bad news. Jan Verkolje signed and dated the picture in 1674, on the plinth beside the open door. The Mauritshuis points to the back of her satin dress, with its pleats, seams and creases, as the best proof of his skill. It belonged to the Rothschild family, was sold at auction in London in 1937 and soon reached the Amsterdam banker Fritz Mannheimer. In 1940 his collection was sold to agents buying for Hitler's planned museum in Linz. After the war the Dutch state took it over, and in 1960 it was transferred to the Mauritshuis.