The Mind Creative APRIL 2014 | Page 48

The Mind Creative March 2014 During the early-to-mid 1890’s, the French post-impressionist artist Paul Cézanne painted a series of five oil paintings called The Card Players. These works, considered by critics to be some of the finest works of art produced by the painter, is based around Provencal male peasants smoking their pipes and playing cards. Apparently, he used local farmhands as models for his painting and, unlike many other depictions of card players by other painters, he depicted them as concentrating fiercely and looking down into the cards. Cézanne initially made many studies and preparatory paintings and drawings for The Card Player series. Some of these initial preparatory works are considered exemplary works of art in themselves. Cézanne’s preparatory works for Self-Portrait Paul Cézanne 1875 48