The Card Sharp with the Ace of Diamonds
Georges de La Tour · 1635
The story
The Card Sharp with the Ace of Diamonds is an oil-on-canvas painting produced c. 1636–1638 by the French artist Georges de La Tour. It is now in the Louvre, which bought it in 1972. Though its commissioner is unknown, it is signed Georgius De La Tour fecit under the card sharp's elbow and in the shadow of the tablecloth.
The work depicts a card game in which the well-to-do young man on the right is being fleeced of his money by the other players, who both appear to be complicit in the scheme. The card sharp on the left is actually in the process of retrieving the ace of diamonds from behind his back.
The painting is one of two versions of the composition by de la Tour. The other version, known as The Cheat with the Ace of Clubs, with "abundant variations in details of color, clothing, and accessories" was purchased in 1981 by the Kimbell Art Foundation and is in the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas.
- Artist
- Georges de La Tour
- Date
- 1635
- Collection
- Louvre, Paris, France
- Medium
- oil paint, canvas
- Size
- 106 × 146 cm
Story adapted from the Wikipedia article and its contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Facts from Wikidata (CC0). Image: Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.
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