Cardplayers 2

#89002     48″ X 66″      ac

• Cezanne: “Cardplayers” ( 1890 – 92 )
• Picasso: “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” ( 1907 )
• Gauguin: “The Yellow Christ” ( 1889 )

Although Chen does not list Van Gogh as an iconographical source in this painting, the player on the left is so reminiscent of a Van Gogh selfportrait, rotated and admittedly painted with a heavy, brusque hand, that that influence, if not parentage, cannot be denied.

As overseers of this scene, the sacrificial Christ and the Cubist young women (one seen only as a head) clash. The women are almost participant observers as they look over the shoulders of the Toulouse-Lautrec player, anxious to share his winning hand. Christ’s eyes are closed to the game, which is superficial compared to his sacrifice.

-Lawrence Jeppson