The Card Players

Several Provençal peasants sit around a table intent on their cards, while another man stands by with a pipe, watching. The figures are grave and almost motionless; the whole scene is quiet to the point of solemnity. In the early 1890s Cézanne painted five versions of the card players, the number of figures shrinking from five to two; this is one of the larger, more populous versions. His models were farmers and estate hands near his hometown of Aix. Cézanne treats this everyday subject with the stability of a still life: the figures are like geometric volumes, and the planes and colors of table, hats and clothing answer one another. This reconstruction of form through structure and color is why he has been called the father of modern painting.