Card Players

C�zanne painted a series of The Card Players, consisting of five paintings, during his final period in the early 1890s. The versions vary in size and in the number of players depicted. C�zanne also completed numerous drawings and studies in preparation for the series.

Each painting depicts Proven�al peasants immersed in smoking their pipes and playing cards. The subjects, all male, are displayed as studious within their card playing, eyes cast downward, intent on the game at hand. C�zanne adapted the motif from 17th-century Dutch and French genre painting which often depicted card games with rowdy, drunken gamblers in taverns.

View examples of Card Players from the 17th century.