# The Card Players

**Paul Cézanne** (French, 1839–1906)  
1890–92  
Oil on canvas  
25 3/4 x 32 1/4 in. (65.4 x 81.9 cm)

Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 61.101.1. [The museum's record](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/435868).

## About this work

Three farmhands sit at a table absorbed in a game of cards, while a fourth man, pipe in mouth, stands watching behind them. Cézanne painted a series of card players in the early 1890s, using labourers from his family’s estate near Aix-en-Provence as models, and he stripped the traditional tavern scene of anecdote and noise. There is no gambling, drinking or quarrelling here, only stillness and concentration, and the figures are built up like solid architecture from blocks of earthy colour.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

Paul Cézanne painted this in 1890–92, aged about 51. It is now at The Met in New York.

### How it was made

- **Oil paint.** Pigment ground in a drying oil, usually linseed. It dries slowly, so painters could blend on the canvas, build up thin translucent glazes, and rework a picture over weeks. Canvas replaced wooden panels in the 1500s because it is lighter and can be rolled.

### [Paul Cézanne](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/paul-cezanne)

French, 1839–1906; born in Aix-en-Provence; died in Aix-en-Provence

Cézanne divided his life between Paris and his native Aix-en-Provence. Encouraged by his schoolfriend Émile Zola and later by Pissarro, with whom he painted at Pontoise and Auvers in the 1870s, he showed at the first and third Impressionist exhibitions. He then withdrew to Provence and worked towards a more structured art, building form from patches of colour in still lifes, bathers and repeated views of Mont Sainte-Victoire. Younger painters, Picasso and Braque among them, saw him as a founder of modern painting.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

## Facts

- Type: Paintings
- The artist was about 51
- Real size: about 26 × 32 in (65 × 82 cm). The 20 × 30 in print is close to life size.
- Century: 19th century
- Movement: [Post-Impressionism](https://www.ochreeditions.com/movements/post-impressionism)
- Subjects: Men, Playing Cards, Smoking, Games, Pipes
- Colour: grey
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/1071.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/1071/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56; 18 × 24 in $68; 20 × 30 in $86; 24 × 36 in $108
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138; 18 × 24 in $164; 20 × 30 in $208; 24 × 36 in $258
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98; 18 × 24 in $118; 20 × 30 in $148
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3; 18 × 24 in $3; 20 × 30 in $5; 24 × 36 in $5

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/the-card-players-met-435868).