Cézanne adapted a motif from 17th-century Dutch and French genre painting which often depicted card games with rowdy, drunken gamblers in taverns, replacing them instead with stone-faced tradesmen in a more simplified setting.
The subjects, all male, are displayed as studious within their card playing, eyes cast downward, intent on the game at hand. Įach painting depicts Provençal peasants immersed in
The series is considered by critics to be a cornerstone of Cézanne's art during the early-to-mid 1890s period, as well as a 'prelude' to his final years, when he painted some of his most acclaimed work. One version of The Card Players was sold in 2000s to the Royal Family of Qatar for a price estimated at $250 million ($325.2 million today), signifying a new mark for highest ever price for a painting, not surpassed until November 2017. Cézanne also completed numerous drawings and studies in preparation for The Card Players series. The versions vary in size, the number of players, and the setting in which the game takes place. Painted during Cézanne's final period in the early 1890s, there are five paintings in the series. The Card Players is a series of oil paintings by the French Post-Impressionist artist Paul Cézanne. For the Almanach painting, see The Card Players II.
