Tric Trac Players

Pieter de Hooch completed this Dutch Golden Age genre scene around 1652-55. Figures gather around a table playing tric-trac, a form of backgammon popular in the 17th-century Netherlands. The interior setting shows de Hooch's characteristic attention to domestic spaces and light.

Tric-trac scenes were common in Dutch painting, depicting leisure and social interaction. De Hooch, along with Vermeer, specialized in quiet interior scenes. His careful rendering of space and light through doorways and windows influenced generations of painters. The oil on wood panel measures 46 x 33 cm. Versions exist in both the Art Institute of Chicago and the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin, reflecting the subject's popularity.