Cezanne's Card Players

The Card Players is a series of oil paintings by artist Paul Cézanne. These series of painting were painted between 1892-1895.

Cézanne had been constantly simplifying the content of image and created five oil paintings on the theme of card players. One of them has five people in it; one of them has four people in it; three of them have two people in them.

He began the Card Player series in 1890, modelling his figures on farmers observed in Aix-en-Provence. However, the artist’s interest had nothing to do with rural life or with social or symbolic elements; rather he aimed to depict the game as it plays off his work’s rigorous composition.

According to the the historian Meyer Schapiro " Cezanne often reduces the singularity of human beings; he is most happy with people like his card players, who do not impose themselves, who are perfectly passive or reserved, or immersed in their tasks. The portrait becomes a gigantic still-life."
Cezanne's Card Players