Kaartspelers aan tafel

About this artwork

plaatrand: hoogte 80 mm x breedte 138 mm

Art Historical Context

**Kaartspelers aan tafel** (Card Players at the Table) is a delicate etching by Belgian artist Xavier Mellery, sometime between 1855 and 1913. Mellery (1845–1925), a master of intimate genre scenes, captured everyday moments with meticulous precision, blending Realism with emerging Symbolist tendencies. This small-scale work, measuring just 80 mm high by 138 mm wide (matching the plate dimensions), invites viewers into a cozy domestic tableau of card players gathered around a table—a timeless motif evoking camaraderie, strategy, and quiet tension. As an etching, the piece showcases Mellery's ...

About the Artist

Xavier Mellery · 1845–1921

Xavier Mellery (1845–1921) was a Belgian symbolist painter, draftsman, and illustrator who stands as a crucial precursor and founding figure of Belgian Symbolism, one of the most distinctive movements in late 19th-century European art. Born on August 9, 1845, in Laeken (a district of Brussels) as the son of a gardener at the Royal Palace, and dying on February 4, 1921, in Brussels, Mellery's caree...