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The Card Players

1890–92
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 826

Cézanne was in his fifties when he undertook a painting campaign devoted to giving memorable form to a subject that inspired the likes of Caravaggio and Chardin. He was determined from the start—as we see in this sturdy Provençal scene—to make it his own. Cézanne carefully crafted this composition from figure studies he had made of local farmhands. Once he had puzzled-out his conception, he continued to fine-tune the poses and positions of the card players, until they—like the four pipes hanging on the wall behind them—each fell perfectly into place. Cézanne channeled the quiet authority he achieved here into a much larger variant (Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia) and punctuated the series with three works in which he pared away extraneous details to focus his gaze on a pair of players.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Card Players
  • Artist: Paul Cézanne (French, Aix-en-Provence 1839–1906 Aix-en-Provence)
  • Date: 1890–92
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 25 3/4 x 32 1/4 in. (65.4 x 81.9 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Bequest of Stephen C. Clark, 1960
  • Object Number: 61.101.1
  • Curatorial Department: European Paintings

Audio

Cover Image for 6330. The Card Players

6330. The Card Players

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More Artwork

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Studies of a tree (recto and verso), Paul Cézanne French, Graphite with green, blue and yellow washes (recto); graphite with green, blue and purple washes (verso)
Studies of a tree (recto and verso)
Paul Cézanne
1887–90
The Large Bathers (Les Baigneurs), Paul Cézanne French, Color lithograph on wove paper; first state of two
The Large Bathers (Les Baigneurs)
Paul Cézanne
ca. 1898
Portrait of Guillaumin with a Hanging Man, Paul Cézanne French, Etching and drypoint; second state of two (restrike)
Portrait of Guillaumin with a Hanging Man
Paul Cézanne
1873
Exhibition Announcement and Catalogue for a Cézanne show at the Galerie Vollard (May 9–June 10, 1898), Paul Cézanne French, Relief print
Exhibition Announcement and Catalogue for a Cézanne show at the Galerie Vollard (May 9–June 10, 1898)
Paul Cézanne
1898
Bathers (recto); Still Life (verso), Paul Cézanne French, Watercolor over graphite (recto); watercolor (verso)
Bathers (recto); Still Life (verso)
Paul Cézanne
ca. 1890 (recto) – 1900 (verso)

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