Casino and gambling scenes have remained a popular choice of subject matter for artists over centuries. Starting with the Renaissance and going to French Impressionism, there are plenty of emotions that are associated with winning or losing. Feelings of elation and despair have been used to illustrate the highs and lows of human emotion. The experts from LeafletCasino, who review and rate the best online casinos, have put together a list of gambling art pieces descriptions. You’ll find some artists use their work to condemn gaming, but others find joy in the everyday routine that includes a roll of dice or a hand of cards. The following works are all inspired by gambling.
A Friend in Need by Cassius Marcellus Coolidge
This work is the most famous of a series of 16 paintings showing dogs of different breeds playing cards. Painted in 1894 by Cassius Marcellus Coolidge, it was a commission by the Brown & Bigelow Publishing Company to promote cigars. Eleven humanised dogs with anthropomorphic features enjoy a game of poker. They are a nod towards the new middle class, sitting in a living room in suburbia, smoking pipes and studying their cards. On the wall hangs a pretty seaside scene, and you’ll find whisky and beer glasses on the table.
To be honest, it’s a difficult style to define. These days the painting is considered a prime example of “kitsch”, a German word meaning naive and banal. However, in the 1950s, the genre started becoming more mainstream thanks to artists including Keith Haring, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and more recently, Jeff Koons. The painting of dogs playing poker has become a meme, with copies and re-enactments appearing on TV, in movies, and in theatres. Everyone along with the Simpsons, Snoop Dogg, and Lilo and Stitch are referencing it.
Slot Machine Queen by Shelly Wilkerson
This modern American artist can best be described as “Norman Rockwell meets Mad Magazine.” The style is whimsical, and Wilkerson mainly paints cats and old people with images designed to elicit a smile. This is well depicted in her 2011 acrylic on canvas piece, “Slot Machine Queen” shows a happy white-haired woman. She’s resplendent in a feather boa and plenty of jewels, celebrating a win in front of a slot machine as she holds up a glass of red wine. To add an extra dose of whimsy, a large ginger cat appears to be sitting in her lap, and both the woman and the cat stare at us.
Thanks to the Internet and self-marketing, the picture is quite famous. It can be seen as greeting cards, publicity for best Aussie casinos online, t-shirts, prints, phone cases, and stationery. For all that, this cannot disguise the fact that the artist is well-known thanks to social media instead of producing meaningful works that have the power to move or inspire the viewer. Just like the poetry she writes to go along with the paintings, it’s trite and shallow. Nevertheless, it’s well-suited for the tasteless era of TikTok, Instagram, and click-baits.
At the Roulette Table in Monte Carlo by Edvard Munch
The Norwegian expressionist artist Edvard Munch is best known for the 1893 painting “The Scream.” In it, he depicts a panic attack suffered near Oslo. However, during the two previous years, Munch spent a lot of time in Nice, in the south of France. Here he became a regular player at the casino of Monte Carlo. There he fell into a casino obsession and could often be found sitting at the roulette table. He was studying a notebook, searching for patterns in the previous numbers of the roulette wheel. As a matter of fact, in the painting “At the Roulette Table in Monte Carlo,” Munch has painted himself as the dominant figure we see from the back, who’s taking notes.
Though painted from memory, we can feel the tension at the roulette table as well-dressed men and women crowd together. The scene is dramatic with the implementation of opposite colours, especially with the contrast between red and green. In a similar style to Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Degas, Munch was concerned about conveying a feeling and mood as opposed to being technically accurate. To that end, the painter has captured the excitement of the gaming table. Yet, by having individual features reduced to mere suggestions, you too experience a certain nervousness.
The Cardsharps by Michelangelo Caravaggio
Painted in 1594 when Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was 34 years of age, the painting depicts the theatrical style he’s renowned for today. He created gambling paintings of intense realism, which along with the use of strongly contrasting light and dark (chiaroscuro), adds drama. The Baroque painting focuses on deception but also laments the loss of innocence, highlighted with a realism of a brutal and unforgiving world placed against the delicacy of Venetian upper-class life.
In a game of Primero, an aged version of modern card games such as poker, an older and experienced player is duping a well-dressed adolescent boy who is engrossed in his cards. The trickster peeking at the boy’s hand signals to his young accomplice with his hand raised. This second boy is also a card sharp and has extra cards tucked under his belt and hidden behind him. He also has a dagger should the want arise. The three subjects each hold an essential place within the piece. They’re all bound together in the universal drama of innocence lost. Ultimately, the youthful card sharp is of equal age to his mark and is already corrupted by the older man.
The Card Players by Paul Cezanne
The French Post-Impressionist artist Paul Cézanne painted a series of paintings in the early 1890s called “The Card Players.” Although the 5 paintings differ in size, number of players, and setting, all depict Provençal peasants immersed in their card game and pipes. In a simple setting, their eyes are cast downwards, concentrating on the game as it’s played. It might be said that these works from Cézanne lack drama, characterization, and narrative, unlike many genre paintings of the period that would often depict rowdy and drunk players.
There’s a stillness to these paintings that is subtly amplified by using cooler colours along with browns, dark blues, and greys. The players themselves appear as fixed and immobile, deep in concentration. The gamblers don’t look at one another, and there’s no attempt to make conversation. It’s true that all of Cézanne’s figure paintings convey a feeling of timeless tranquillity. It’s said the artist chose card players simply because they were a form of human still life. This is illustrated in the smallest of the series, with two players playing a game of cards, with elbows on a small table, staring at the cards they’re holding.
Summary
Technology is pushing traditional painting toward the sidelines, with video and cinematography now taking the limelight. To that end, there’s an endless stream of movies featuring narratives involving gambling. In spite of this, and even if painting using oils on canvas seems a bit dated and quaint, it’s important to remember the theme of gambling was once a great inspiration for artists to produce masterpieces. Thanks to our human emotions remaining the same, gambling and art are a perfect fit. After all, art depicting the emotional highs of winning and the downs of defeat by a casino game will always touch a viewer.
