The House of Cards
Shown from about the lap up, a young person with brown hair and a peachy complexion faces our left in profile as he leans onto a table and sets folded playing cards up in a row in this vertical painting. Shown against a dark background, his long, brown hair curls by his ears and is pulled back with a navy-blue ribbon at the nape of his neck. He has a delicately sloping nose, his pink lips are closed, the cheek facing us is flushed, and he looks down at the tabletop under lowered lids. He wears a chestnut-brown, long-sleeved coat with a dark blue sash across his chest and tied around his waist. The white of his undershirt peeks out at the high neck and wrists, and the brick-red lining of the sleeve of his jacket rolls back at his right wrist. The wooden table is lined with teal-blue fabric on its surface, and three coins lie near his left hand, closer to us. In that hand he holds three nested, vertically folded playing cards. With his right hand he places the last in a line of ten cards, standing vertically but close together like dominoes, in a curving row in front of him. Scarlet-red diamonds and hearts and the edges of some black shapes are visible within the bent cards. A jack of hearts and a piece of paper or the back of another card sit in a drawer that opens toward us along the side of the table. The artist signed the work in dark brown paint in the lower right corner: “J. Chardin.”
Details
- Palette
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- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- overall: 82.2 x 66 cm (32 3/8 x 26 in.) framed: 107.3 x 92.1 x 10.2 cm (42 1/4 x 36 1/4 x 4 in.)
- Department
- CF
- Holding institution
- National Gallery of Art
- Image provider
- national-gallery-of-art
- License
- CC0-1.0
- Credit
- Andrew W. Mellon Collection
Art Genome Taxonomy
7 tags
Subject Matter
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Human Figure Visual · 99%
A single human figure occupies the right side of the composition, shown from approximately the lap upward and leaning over the table.
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Scenes of Everyday Life Visual · 98%
The figure is shown performing an ordinary activity at a table: arranging folded playing cards in a row, with coins and additional cards nearby.
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Representations of Everyday Objects Visual · 96%
Playing cards, coins, a wooden table with an open drawer, clothing, and other tabletop items are clearly depicted as recognizable everyday objects.
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Leisure Interpretive · 86%
The card arrangement and seated tabletop activity can reasonably be understood as a recreational or leisure pastime, although the image does not establish that a game is actively in progress.
Visual Qualities
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Dark Colors Visual · 98%
The composition is dominated by muted brown, olive, charcoal, and blue-green tones, with localized red, blue, white, and peach accents.
Medium and Techniques
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Oil Painting Metadata · 99%
The museum catalog identifies the work as an oil painting on canvas.
Time Periods
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18th Century Art Metadata · 99%
The catalog dates the work to probably 1737, placing it within the eighteenth century.
Source & rights
Jean Siméon Chardin. The House of Cards. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington.