Card Players – Joseph-Claude Bail

Joseph-Claude Bail, a French artist who lived from 1862 to 1921, painted the oil on canvas Card Players in 1897. It is in the collection of the Musée d’Orsay in Paris and has the registration number PPP6. Joseph-Claude Bail was a specialist at depicting apprentices and entry-level kitchen workers, and here he offers a view of young cooks at leisure. Dressed in their aprons, playing cards and smoking, the four workers assume a variety of poses that recall paintings of soldiers amusing themselves between duties. The comparison is telling, as French kitchens adopted a military-inspired brigade system through the innovations of chefs such as Auguste Escoffier (1846 –1935). Bail renders this perspective on male communion between labors with a charming and incisive effect. Joseph-Claude Bail (French, 1862–1921), Card Players, 1897, oil on canvas, Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la ville de Paris, PPP6