The Family Dinner

Artist Maitre des Jeux (Master of the Games) (Active mid-1600s)

Artistformerly attributed to Mathieu Le Nain (French, 1607-1677)

Place of OriginFrance

Dateabout 1645-1648

DimensionsH: 32 1/2 in. (82.6 cm); W: 43 in. (109.2 cm)

MediumOil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1946.28

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 24

Label TextThis family portrait captures a scene of daily life in a French middle class household. The servants, at either end of the table, are included, as is the family dog. The man and woman on the far side of the table gesture to the frugal meal of ham and bread, served on plain pewter plates, indicating their piously modest lifestyle. Little is known about the “Master of the Games,” not even his name (his pseudonym comes from his paintings of card players). His paintings are close in style to the Le Nain brothers, three Parisian artists known for their scenes of peasants and of everyday life. The middle class subject, the cool, muted colors and the strong contrasts of light and dark in this painting were evidently influenced not only by the Le Nains, but also by Dutch artists of the same period (see Galleries 23 and 24).Published ReferencesRecueil d'estampes gravees de'apres les tableaux du cabinet de Monseigneur le duc de Choiseul, Paris, 1771, p. 10, no. 104, repr. (engraved as by Le Nain).

Champfleury, Essai sur la vie et l'oeuvre des Le Nain, Laon, 1850, p. 21.

Champfleury, Catalogue des tableaux des Le Nain qui ont passe dans les ventes publiques de l'annee 1775-1853, Brussels, 1861, pp. 2, 3, 44 (?).

Blanc, C., Histoire des peintres de toutes les ecoles: Ecole francaise, Paris, 1862, I, p. 8, no. 23, repr. p. 3 (engraving).

Valabregue, A., Les Freres Le Nain, Paris, 1904, pp. 118, 171.

Burlington Fine Arts Club, Pictures by the Brothers Le Nain, London, 1910, p. 32 (in "List of Works by, or Attributed to, the Brothers Le Nain").

Jamot, P., Les Le Nain, 1929, p. 96, n. 1.

Fierens, P., Les Le Nain, Paris, 1930, p. 50.

Isarlo, G., "Les trois Le Nain et leur suite," La Renaissance, Mar. 1938, p. 26, nos. 111 and 134, fig. 42 (Weisbrod engraving).

"Le Nain in Toledo," Art Digest, vol. 22, Oct. 1, 1947, p. 12 repr. on cover.

"Toledo Shows Its New Le Nain," Art News, vol. 46, Oct. 1947, p. 8.

Dacier, E., "La curiosite au XVIIIe siecle: Choiseul collectionneur," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, XXXVI, July-Sep. 1949, p. 74, no. 22, repr. cover and fig. 19.

Bodkin, T., "Two Rediscovered Pictures by Mathieu Le Nain," Bulletin de la Societe Poussin, no. 3, May 1950, p. 26, pl. 20.

Thuillier, J., and A. Chatelet, French Painting from Le Nain to Fragonard, Geneva, 1964, p. 20.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo, 1976, pp. 94-5, pl. 183.

"La chronique des art," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, vol. 90, no. 305, Oct. 1977, repr. fig. 15, p. 12.

Cuzin, Jean-Pierre, "A Hypothesis Concerning the LeNain Brothers," Burlington, vol. 120, no. 909, Dec. 1978, p. 875, no. 1.

Thuillier, Jacques, Les freres Le Nain, Paris : Ministère de la culture et de la communication, Éditions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, 1978, no. 50, p. 258, repr. p. 79.

Adhemar, Helene, "Les freres Le Nain et les personnes charitables a Paris sous Louis XIII," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, vol. 93, no. 1321, Feb. 1979, repr. p. 72.

Devaux, Jean, Les tresors de l'art classiques, Geneva, 1978, p. 1976, repr. (col.), Plate XXXXVIII.

Four Guest Galleries from Paris and Paul Rosenberg & Co.: French Painting 1600-1900, New York, 1982, p. 16.

Rosenberg, Pierre, "Iventaire des tableaux francaise du XVII3 siecle appartenant aux collections publique des Etats-Unis," inLa peinture francaise du XVIIe siecle dans les collections americaines, Paris, 1982, p. 364, no. 1, repr. (as by Le Maitre des Jeux).

The Cleveland Museum of Art Catalogue of Paintings, part 3: European of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries, Cleveland, 1982, pp. 95, 99, 100.

In reference to Rosenberg entry: (Also in English edition New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, France in the Golden age: Seventeenth Century French Paintings in American Collections, 1982)

Rosenberg, Pierre, Tout l'oeuvre peint des Le Nain, Paris, 1993, pp. 97, 98, no. J5, repr.

Gourarier, Zeev, Arts et manieres de table, Thionville, 1994, pp. 111, 118, repr. pp. 116-117 (col.).

Rand, Richard, Intimate Encounters: Love and Domesticity in Eighteenth-Century France, Hanover, NH, 1997, p. 5, 12, fig. 4, p. 11.

Milovanovic, Nicolas and Luc Piralla-Heng Vong, Le mystere Le Nain, Lens, Musee du Louvre-Lens, 2017, p. 21, repr. p. 22 (col.).

Exhibition HistoryNew York, Wildenstein, French Painting of the Time of Louis XIIIth and Louis XIVth, 1946, no. 26.

Toledo Museum of Art,The Brothers Le Nain, 1947, no. 11, repr.

Toronto, Art Gallery of Ontario, 1948.

Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute, Pictures of Everyday Life: Genre Painting in Europe, 1500-1900, 1954, pl. 25.

Paris, Grand Palais, Les freres Le Nain, Oct. 3, 1978-Jan. 8, 1979, no. 50.