The Young Card Players

1643

Contemporaries of Rembrandt van Rijn and Diego Velázquez, the Le Nain brothers – Antoine, Louis, and Mathieu – created some of the most beautiful and enigmatic paintings of the seventeenth century. These rosy-cheeked children appear to play cards innocently, however they are actually trying to cheat the well-dressed boy, second from right. While the Le Nains did not individually sign their works, recent scholarship has suggested that Antoine preffered to work on smaller, rigid supports like panel or copper.

Medium	oil on copper mounted on panel
Dimensions	11 15/16 x 15 1/4 in. (30.3 x 38.8 cm) Frame: 17 5/8 x 21 1/8 x 2 1/4 in. (44.8 x 53.7 x 5.7 cm)
Object Number	1955.787
Acquisition	Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark before 1955
Status	On View

Image Caption

Antoine Le Nain, The Young Card Players, 1643, oil on copper mounted on panel. Clark Art Institute, 1955.787

Select Bibliography

Paris: Musée de l'Orangerie.. Les peintres de la réalité en France au XVIIe Siècle.. 1934.. Paris: Petit Palais.. Exposition Le Nain.. 1934.. New York: Knoedler Galleries.. Georges de la Tour and The Brothers Le Nain. Nov. 23-Dec. 12, 1936; also at Chicago Art Institute, Detroit Institute of Arts, City Museum of St. Louis. Paris: Palais National des Arts.. Exposition des chefs d'oeuvre de l'art français.. 1937.. Grand Palais, Paris.. Les Frères LeNain. Oct. 3, 1978-Jan. 8, 1979. Paul Fierens.. Les Le Nain.. Paris: Librairie Floury.. 1933.. Charles Sterling.. Catalogue de l'exposition des peintres de la réalité en France, 17e siècle. 3rd ed. corr.. Paris: Editions des Musées Nationaux.. 1934.. Davies, Martin. "Signed Lenains." The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 66, no. 387 (June 1935): 2923. . . Coronet, 1. Feb. 1937.. George Isarlo.. "Les trois Le Nain et leur suite.". 21.. La Renaissance.. March 1938.. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1970. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1972. Jacques Thuillier.. "Le Nain: Leçons d'une exposition.". 2.. Revue du Louvre.. 1979. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1984. Kern, Steven, ed. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1992. Georgel, Pierre. Orangerie, 1934: Les "Peintres de la Réalité". Musee de l'Orangerie. November 21, 2006- March 5, 2007. Paris: Editions de la Réunion des musées nationaux. 2006.

Provenance

[Galerie Matthiessen, Berlin, by 1930]; [A.G. Kunstwerte]; [Knoedler, New York, 19 March 1935, sold to Clark, 1938]; Robert Sterling Clark (1938-1955); Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1955.