
The Card Players
1895 · Musee d'Orsay, Paris
Cézanne used local farmhands as models and painted several versions, stripping the old tavern subject down until only two men and a bottle remain.
★ 8.7

Cézanne used local farmhands as models and painted several versions, stripping the old tavern subject down until only two men and a bottle remain.

One boy has a card hidden behind his back and his older partner signals the count on his fingers. It got Caravaggio his first patron.

Rivermen break off work for a card game on a flatboat, arranged with a stillness that lifts the scene toward history painting.

Coins and cards on the table and a great deal of sidelong glancing. Somebody is being cheated, and the intrigue may not be financial.