The House of Cards

While much of Paris painting in the 1740s went in for Rococo froth, pink clouds and flirting gods, Chardin kept painting quiet, ordinary rooms. The boy here has a name: Jean-Alexandre Le Noir, whose father was a cabinet-maker who bought several pictures from the artist. He stands at a small table, wholly absorbed, balancing playing cards into a little house. It was an old theme with a warning folded into it, borrowed from Dutch painters: the house of cards stands for how flimsy human plans really are. When an engraving was made in 1743, someone added a verse asking the child which was sturdier, his card castle or the grown-ups' schemes. Chardin lets none of that break the boy's concentration. A stray card sits half-tucked in the open drawer.