If I ask you to recall one painting from history that depicts gambling, you would likely mention the famous Cardsharps by Caravaggio or Dogs Playing Poker. But, hold this thought, and now tell me if you really think the paintings portraying gambling are just about that? If yes, then this genre is really taken for granted because even the most famous artists, like Cézanne, Picasso, Daumier, Goya, and Van Gogh, painted casino on the canvases. Now this article would certainly tell you why gambling paintings were painted at first place, but I will give a deep insight into such paintings. Before I approach the art section, I want to tell you something more. Though I never went to a casino myself, I have seen people playing cards all the time for bets, and I noticed something interesting. The actions of both sexes, like their postures, passions, anxieties, tensions, excitement, despair, are visible in the most raw form. Now, if this interests us, there is a slight possibility that the painters, sculptors, and printmakers were interested in them too. Because while in gambling, there are several people caught up, like men and women gamblers, croupiers, card sharps, cheats, and even children. However, you will only know the meaning of gambling art after you read this article. So, let’s start after we hear what our sponsor of the article has to say.
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9 Gambling Paintings That Will Fascinate You.
1. The Cheat With the Ace of Clubs by Georges de La Tour.
Georges de La Tour was largely forgotten until the twentieth century, but when the art world finally began to know him, it was realized that he was one of the greatest painters of the candle-lit scenes. Though his life was torn by war and pestilence, his art reflects simple and peaceful scenes with dramatic lighting effects and a monumental calmness. Most of the paintings of the artist followed the Baroque style, majorly characterized by the 17th century court and religious scenes.
The Cheat With the Ace of Clubs is the painting from the most productive years of the artist, when he painted at least three other vivid gambling paintings, including Card Players, Denial of St. Peter, and The Dice Players. This painting captures an interesting scene, as it depicts women gambling with complete acceptance. Several 17th-century portrayals showed that European women were not excluded from gambling. However, the central theme of this composition is cheating. As the Ace is about to be reintroduced in the game, which is known as mucking, this painting becomes one of the earliest artistic portrayals of cheating at cards. The colors used in the composition are dazzling, with an elaborate costume, creating a brilliant tableau. There is a psychological drama in the painting through the cues of several characters, gazes, and their measured gestures. However, the cheat tips in the cards towards the viewers show the conniving trio of cheat, maidservant, and courtesan. To me, this painting is about witnessing cheating in reality and how people tend to hide it through their postures and gazes.
| Artist | Georges de La Tour |
| Dated | c. 1625 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 38 1/2’’ x 61 1/2’’ |
| Period | Baroque |
| Museum | Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas |
2. The Card Players by Paul Cézanne.
Cézanne had a profound influence on twentieth-century paintings, as his art mostly stands apart from the rest of the artists of the period. Having an interplay of Classicism, Realism, and Romanticism, his art ushered in a new age of painting. Particularly impressed by the large figure paintings, Cézanne appealed to several painters in the early years of the twentieth century. Using very pliable brushes made of polecat hair, he would wash every touch on the canvas with a medium cup filled with turpentine. Following the Impressionist method of working, he would work straight onto the canvas, first by studying the motif and then looking at the paint on the palette, and then applying the dab to the canvas. However, every touch on the canvas showed Cézanne’s concentration and perseverance.
The painting has five versions, but the last version is considered the best. In all of the paintings, the number of subjects ranges upto five. In this painting, Cézanne used contrasts to achieve a monumental quality. Both men appear to be contemplative; however, the two figures are opposites. The figure to the left is calm and relaxed, with his clothes being too neat, while on the other hand, the figure on the right appears to be unsure of his next move, with his clothes rumpled. An incredible number of brushstrokes are used in this composition, with special focus on balance. Though the basket and bottle are irregular, the effect is harmonious and pleasing.
| Artist | Paul Cézanne |
| Dated | 1892 |
| Medium | Oil on Canvas |
| Dimensions | 17 3/4” x 22 1/2” |
| Period | Post-Impressionism |
| Museum | Musee d’Orsay, Paris, France |
3. Card Players by Pablo Picasso.
Being the artistic giant of the 20th century, Picasso’s work and lifestyle were legendary in the art world. From his blue and rose period paintings of harlequins to the abstract Cubist still lifes and the modernist images of women, Picasso’s art had a maverick style, which was instantly recognizable. He prized his Cubist construction, which was developed in concert with the Baroque and celebrated by Cézanne; the radicality of his sculpture owed nothing to the forerunners or contemporaries.
The Card Players was finished by the artist in early 1914, with several elements of trompe l’oiel collage and pointillist stippling. The early 1920s in the artist’s career had canvases displaying own style of abstraction and surrealism. While Picasso exhibited no affinity for gambling, he, like many cubists of his period, made gambling paintings, particularly with cards. This composition has two figures juxtaposed in contrasting styles in a very sophisticated manner, with a single card over the top. There is even a brown table with red legs where two figures are sitting with cards in the left figure’s hand.
| Artist | Pablo Picasso |
| Dated | 1913 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 42 1/2” x 35 1/4” |
| Period | Cubism |
| Museum | The Museum of Modern Art, New York |
4. The Roulette Table by Edvard Munch.
The Norwegian painter, Munch, created several paintings, including neurotic, intensely personal, sexually obsessed, which still connect the modern mind. Being the forerunner of the Expressionist movement, Munch conveyed the tragic pain, angst, and despair because of the deaths of his mother and sister. His early work showed the Impressionist techniques. But throughout his life, he was preoccupied with the themes of death, love, sex, jealousy, grief, and anxiety.
Munch experienced a time of being famous, further receiving high critical acclaim for his works. During this time, he spent much of his time in the society of Berlin, where he was drinking heavily and gambling. The composition, Roulette Table, is an excellent example that can provide a snapshot of the period. The scene portrays well-dressed men gathered around a roulette table, which is a representation of a European salon, probably in the Baden-baden or Bam homburg. Just a few decades earlier, Dostoevsky wrote the famous The Gambler, which is a story of a man who succumbs to the lures of the gambling systems. This painting might have taken inspiration from it.
| Artist | Edvard Munch |
| Dated | 1892 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 29 1/2” x 45 3/4” |
| Period | Post-Impressionism |
| Museum | Munch Museum, Oslo, Norway |
5. Soldiers Playing At Cards by Fernand Léger.
Fernand Léger was inspired by the Cubist movement. Associated with the Cubism of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque during the early years of his career, he did not fit comfortably within that classification, as he was fascinated by mechanical inventions that changed the course of modern life. Many artists who came away from the war were especially embittered by the machines, but Léger thought differently. To him, the war was imperative to humanize the machine Age, as it showed positive effects on society. Hence, his art showed the figures in a metallic form where men and women seem to be transformed into the gear wheels and crankshafts of industrial equipment.
This painting is a synthesis of the Leger’s experiences in World War I, painted while he convalesced after being gassed at the front. He wrote,
“I discovered the dynamism of mechanics through artillery and treaded vehicles.. The breachlock of a 75mm gun opened in the sun taught me more for my artistic evolution than all the museums in the world.”
The painting also reflects life as gambling; one might win with all the probabilities of losing. In this composition, the figures of the soldiers, of various corps and different ranks, are portrayed in the same cylindrical forms with the shell casings and artillery pieces. Further, the disjointed robots exemplify the casualties of war, with the machinery representing the body parts, resulting in the fragments of humanity.
| Artist | Fernand Léger |
| Dated | 1917 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 129cm x 193 cm |
| Period | Tubism |
| Museum | Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands |
6. Small Beggars Playing Game of Dice by Bartolomé Murillo.
Murillo was one of the most well-known artists of religious scenes. All of his works conveyed a deep spiritual emotion, with compassion and kindness to the people. He remained admired by most of the European artists in the 18th and early 19th centuries, whereas his early works were much influenced by the works of Velázquez.
The composition displayed the poverty-stricken children of the artist’s hometown. Though poor, desperate, and dressed in rags, the boys in the composition are portrayed as clean and happy ragamuffins. And they are playing craps, a version of which is called Private craps. Since there is no banker here, the actual game is hazard.
| Artist | Bartolomé Murillo |
| Dated | 1650 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 53 3/4” x 43 1/4” |
| Period | Baroque |
| Museum | Alte Pinakothek, Munich, Germany |
7. Gamblers Quarrelling by Jan Steen.
Jan Steen was a highly esteemed Dutch artist who showed surfaces and scenes of everyday life with impeccable care and soft light illumination. Before he trained as a painter, he started his professional life as a brewer. However, he was determined to be an artist, making him study in the same school of painting where Rembrandt van Rijn studied. The art of Jan Steen is different and outstanding, as he was capable of mixing vulgar with the high and mighty, the comic and tragic, and the serious with the satirical.
The painting shows a Dutch game of cards called Klaverjas, a relative of the Swiss game of jass. The game is played with a 32-card deck devoid of fives. Hence, the composition has the toppled backgammon board in the foreground, which has evidence of gambling and games in taverns, brothels, and similar settings. The gamblers are coming to blows, with several objects broken in the background. There’s a proverb that goes by: “Wine is a mocker, and strong drink makes an uproar; no one addicted to their company grows wise.” It fits the painting as the gamblers are quarrelling, a scene from Adriaen Brouwer’s genre predecessors.
| Artist | Jan Steen |
| Dated | 1665 |
| Medium | Paint on canvas |
| Dimensions | 69.9 cm x 88.3 cm |
| Period | Baroque |
| Museum | The Detroit Institute of Arts |
8. The Truant Gamblers by William Sidney Mount.
One of the first important genre painters of America, William Sidney Mount, was born in a village on Long Island. All of his paintings, which included landscapes, genre scenes, and portraits, were filled with a gentle humor and charm. Being fascinated by the colored techniques of the old masters, spiritualism, politics of the day, and music making, William Mount kept voluminous notes, diaries, and journals on several subjects.
The artist, in one of his letters, wrote,
“Genius has but one wing, and unless unsustained on the other side by the well-regulated wing of assiduity, will quickly fall to the ground. An artist should be of the world but not of it.”
He reflected this quote when he painted The Truant Gamblers, as he had to use crutches. The composition, Truant Gamblers, has an absence of normal gambling paraphernalia such as dice or cards. However, the inverted straw hat with a few pennies stacked below determines that this is indeed a gambling art. Capturing three boys gambling in a rural setting, as if they are ignoring the farming chores for this little game, at the same time, an angry farmer is shown with a pitchfork and a switch. Though this painting shows gambling, there is a humorous narrative that makes this picture more charming and delightful.
| Artist | William Sidney Mount |
| Dated | 1835 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 24” x 30” |
| Period | Neoclassicism |
| Museum | Collection of the New York Historical Society, New York |
9. The Gamblers by Hendrick Terbrugghen.
Terbrugghen grew up in Utrecht. He was instructed by the Mannerist painter Bloemart. However, on his visit to Italy for 10 years, he had direct inspiration from Caravaggio, Orazio Gentileschi, and Carlo Saraceni. He brought the chiaroscuro technique to Utrecht with Dirch van Baburen and Gerrit van Honthorst. Almost all of his paintings were genre paintings, which included scenes of drinking, card-playing, and music-making.
The Gamblers was inspired by Caravaggio’s The Cardsharps and Baburen’s Backgammon Players. The art historians have even speculated that the gaming scenes portrayed by Terbrugghen, as well as by Caravaggio, were greatly inspired by the images of gambling at the foot of the cross during the Crucifixion of Christ. Portraying three men at the gambling table, the composition is rich in exquisite dresses, colors, expressions, and even hand gestures. The table consists of a few pennies, a deck of cards with an ace, and two dice.
| Artist | Hendrick Terbrugghen |
| Dated | 1623 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 33” x 44 7/8” |
| Period | Baroque |
| Museum | Minneapolis Institute of Arts |
Final Words.
Gambling paintings are not confined to cards, but the genre even sets a moral standard for the people in sarcasm. And it did not arise after the Renaissance or another art movement, but it existed from long time. For instance, in the Exekias pottery, one can clearly see that the Greeks used dice more than 500 years before the birth of Jesus. Though cubical dice came to prominence in Rome during the latter 1st century B.C., they had been developed and used hundreds of years earlier. When it started, they might have just started as a game, but the artists from different times showed different emotions through it. There are countless frames that fall in the genre, which I might add time to time for more understanding of gambling art.
Resources.
- Featured Image: The Cardsharps by Caravaggio; Caravaggio, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
- Georges de La Tour by Christopher Wright.
- Cézanne, by Elizabeth Kaufman.
- Pablo Picasso, a Retrospective by Jane Fluegel, William Rubin, Pablo Picasso.
- Munch Cameo by Jose Maria Faerna.
- Léger by Fernand Léger.
- The Amusements of Jan Steen: Comic Painting in the Seventeenth Century by Mariet Westermann.
- Alfred Frankstein’s William Sidney Mount.
- The Art of Gambling Through the Ages by Arthur Flowers.
- Baroque by Hermann Bauer.
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