Hazardspelers 1846 - 1887

Curator: This ink and pen drawing is titled "Hazardspelers," or "Games of Chance," by Alexander Ver Huell, made sometime between 1846 and 1887. What strikes you first about this collection of sketches? Editor: Well, there is a faintly chaotic feeling. Each scene hints at a separate, fraught narrative, a mini-drama involving these various…gamblers. Curator: Yes, the title offers the overarching theme, and Ver Huell delivers little stories circling it. The image of dice as skulls looming overhead hints at death or mortality as the ultimate risk of wagering everything. Do you think there is a central scene we’re meant to focus on? Editor: It seems, to me, almost like a story board. I see a range of consequences being explored— from quiet desperation in solitude to physical brawls over lost money. Curator: The lone figures at the top and bottom certainly do project distinct emotional states of isolation, of the burden of loss. But you notice as well the way many smaller clusters depict interactions – are they arguing or colluding? Are they sharing in misfortune? Editor: There’s a real moralizing quality too, maybe? A little reminder of the dangers inherent in games of chance and just what a potent symbol these things have been throughout history. In religious art for instance, items and objects within images offer deeper insight to the main subjects. The same approach can be applied here. Ver Huell carefully illustrates what happens when luck, or lack thereof, takes its toll. Curator: Yes, but with such detail! You could lose yourself in one of these miniatures; each suggests an entire social world. What seems most symbolic to you then, with the various symbols here? Editor: The central, spectral figure presiding over everything… a god of fate, perhaps? Clutching his masks? In a game of chance, are we ever really seeing what’s truly in play? Or do we just grasp at shadows and projections of what might be? Curator: What a vivid metaphor! Ver Huell offers us an abundance of intimate moments which taken together, paint a very robust and poignant portrait of humanity’s peculiar relationship with chance, a testament to the highs, lows, wins, and losses we collect during our time. Editor: Ultimately, perhaps it encourages us to think about what other kinds of risks and choices we make, in what becomes a tapestry of everyday occurrences.