The Messenger (painting)

The Messenger (Dutch - De boodschapper ('t kan verkeren)) is a 1674 oil painting by Johannes Verkolje which is in the collection of the Mauritshuis, in The Hague.

The picture depicts a messenger delivering a letter to an officer and his female companion who are playing backgammon.

[1] It was owned by Anna Louisa Agatha van Loon-van Winter in Amsterdam until 1877.

In 1941 it was sold through the Dienststelle Mühlmann of the Hague to Arthur Seyss-Inquart.

[2] In 1946 it was transferred to the Stichting Nederlands Kunstbezit in the Hague and two years later it was loaned to the Mauritshuis.