\paperw19995 \margr0\margl0 \plain \fs20 \f1 Taking his inspiration from seventeenth-century models, CΘzanne painted a series of pictures of card players and pipe smoker
s in the early 1890s. Yet these works are no longer narrative in character. In this painting, the figure of the man with a pipe is given a physical consistency and monumental appearance by means of the vigorous brushwork. The version in the Hermitage
has a still life in the background, a genre of which the artist was very fond.
