The House of Cards

The House of Cards is an oil painting by Jean Siméon Chardin. It was painted. It measures. It hangs in the National Gallery, in London. There are three other versions of the same motif at the National Gallery of Art, in Washington D.C., the Uffizi, in Florence and at Waddesdon Manor, in England. Chardin painted scenes that found favor with all classes of Parisian society.

Description

The painting shows a young boy standing at a small wooden table, who is building carefully a house of playing cards. The table has a drawer open and a green table cover. The boy was named Jean-Alexandre Le Noir, and he was the son of furniture dealer and cabinetmaker, Jean-Jacques Le Noir. The theme of children building houses of cards was usual at the time.