Willem Cornelisz Duyster

Willem Duyster painted small scenes of soldiers and merry company in Amsterdam: officers playing cards, men warming themselves at a fireplace, and couples making music. He was especially good at fabrics, with shimmering silks, satins and leather painted in fine detail.

He was born in Amsterdam in 1599 and began as a portrait painter before turning to guardroom scenes and interiors. His figures are carefully characterised, and the relationships between them are often tense or ambiguous. His career was short, as he died in 1635 at thirty six. The Metropolitan Museum of Art holds his work.

Card-Playing Soldiers and Soldiers beside a Fireplace are typical. Look at the play of light on the costumes and the quiet, watchful faces.