The House of Cards is a masterpiece of a Fine Art painting by Jean Siméon Chardin, an artist of the XVIII century. Being a French artist in a period, when the Rococo painting dominated, his works had nothing in common with it. However, despite ignoring his era preferences – history painting – and choosing minor categories, he was favored by many.
The House of Cards is one of some works, demonstrating the author’s wonderful ability to portray a child’s innocence in such an unsentimental manner. It was created in 1737 and represents oil on canvas.
There is a boy in the picture, shown in profile, who makes the house of cards. His figure is situated in the central part of the canvas. The proportions of a boy’s figure comply with the Golden Mean of Pythagoras and there are no distortions.
In the picture a real person – a boy – is seen. He is busy with making a house of cards. From his concentrated face, it is understandable that he likes to do it. However, his positive emotion, while working at his house, reflects on positive emotion, with which all people create various worldly constructions, despite recognizing their vanity and idleness. That adds symbolicalness to the boy’s busyness. The apron of the boy offers that he is a servant called for clearing. But, he plays with the cards building a very impermanent structure. The painting’s triangular composition creates stability, freezing the moment, and emphasizing the fragile balance of the construction.