The Card Players, Paul Cezanne, 1890-92 (The First)

Things are not always as they appear – a fact, which is evident in Paul Cezanne’s The Card Players. The painting is simple and beautiful, the colors are captivating, and the composition uses simple lines to create shapes and order in the painting. There are two different versions of The Card Players. The first and simpler version lacks the detail that the second does. It lacks the painting on the wall and the shelf with the vase. There is a young boy present in the second painting that is not in the first.

The Card Playrers, Paul Cezanne, 1890-92, (The Second)

The second painting is better. The colors are far more inviting and the wall makes the painting seem more full. This feeling of fullness contrasts with the child’s empty look. In the second painting the curtain takes on a larger compositional role. The first painting is clearly an unfinished work. Not only are there compositionally necessary parts missing, but also the young man who completes the story that the painting is telling is not present.

This young boy looks substantially different from the other three men in the painting. His skin is far more pale, and his clothes are not as worn. Cezanne included this boy to create a full circle. Compositionally the boy sits outside the group of men playing, his skin is less worn than the others and he stands out from the background.
He is the predecessor to the lives that these men lead, much like the painting
 without the background and without the wear is the predecessor to the one
with the background and wear.