Page 84 - Highlights of the Collection

Gustave Caillebotte [1848-94]

The Bezique Game

France, Paris, 1880
125.3 × 165.6 cm, oil on canvas

The theme of card players was greatly developed as a
genre scene in 17th-century Flemish painting. An active
member of the group of Impressionists, in this painting
Highlights of the Collection Gustave Caillebotte gives the theme the monumental

dimension of a historical painting, while anchoring it
in a contemporary setting. The scene takes place in
the Haussmann apartment he shared with his brother
Martial, visible on the right of the painting smoking his
Louvre Abu Dhabi pipe. A little to one side, one of the players, seated in
the background, fixes his gaze on the spectator. Pensive
and idle, he seems to be gripped by “spleen”, a typical
end-of-century state of melancholy described by the
poet Charles Baudelaire.

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