Picazzo, the crazy painter!
[a.k.a. the man who painted music while listening to paintings] [13 of 40]

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The Card Players - Paul Cézanne (1890-1892)

This work, created by Paul Cézanne, represents one of the most recurring themes of the French artist of Italian origin. It depicts a card game that the painter would present again in four other paintings now scattered across various museums in the world. It is very likely that the artist drew inspiration from the Card Players, attributed to the artist-brothers Le Nain and housed in the museum of Aix-en-Provence, his hometown in southern France. What we see before us is a scene almost austere in its colors and the elements that compose it. Two men are entertaining themselves with a card game that seems frozen in a moment of reflection during which the two players scrutinize their cards. Everything is still; on a bare little table, a bottle proudly serves as the central axis of the composition. The setting is the interior of a country tavern, with a mirror providing a backdrop for the two protagonists. They are likely two peasants the painter knew and often encountered at his father's estate at Jas de Bouffan, near Aix-en-Provence, particularly the man with the pipe, who has been identified as "compare Alexandre," the local gardener. Cézanne's family was indeed affluent, with his father Louis Auguste, a hat factory owner, founding the bank Cézanne et Cabassol in 1844, which no longer exists today. The frequent occurrence of card players in Cézanne's works has produced a peculiar interpretation. The match between two players would symbolize the struggle the artist engaged in against his father for his profession to be accepted by the family. [source artesplorando.it]

Associated LP of 1998