Of the five paintings on this subject, this is one of the most spare. Here, everything comes together to give a monumental aspect to the composition, helped by the wonderfully harmonised colour range.
The recurrence of the card players in Cézanne's art in his last years has given rise to an interesting interpretation: does the confrontation of the two players symbolise the struggle which the artist had in getting his father to recognise his painting, represented here by the "playing card"?