Card players (c.1520) by the Dutch painter Lucas van Leyden (1494-1533). A mixed group of men and women are playing cards. They are gambling seriously because there’s a lot of money on the table.
The Greek heroes Achilles and Ajax are playing dice during the siege of Troja. Seems that gambling was already in ancient times the preferred pastime amusement for soldiers.
Napoleon is playing chess with the Russian Winter (1975) by the German lithographer Andreas Paul Weber. And as always when someone is challenging his destiny it’s already clear who will win.
Card Players (1635) by the Dutch Golden Age painter Jan Miense Molenaer. Probably peasants are playing cards, women are watching and a boy is playing with a dog. It’s a peaceful scenery; gambling is here a decent leisure to pass time.
Almehs playing Chess in a Café by the French Orientalist painter Jean-Léon Gérôme. An idyllic exotic scenery, but also indicating that the girls are not stupid like many of the popular odalisques.
"Winner take all", cover of a pulp magazine of the 1960s. Interesting is, that the woman is painted here in the traditional pose of fortuna. She’s seductive and promising. Sure that the prize is not the money. But she’s also deceptive and I don’t think that there will be a winner at all.
Here Emma Peel in the legendary television series the Avengers. This so called "Chess board Intro" was specially produced for ABC network in the United States in 1966.
Of course the Avengers are playing chess, the great strategic game.
The ace of spades is often seen as a symbol of death and is known in popular folklore as the "death card". Therefore it’s popular in the military to decorate tanks, airplanes and other stuff. Here a destroyed British tank in World War One, probably part of the British 12th Division.
Union soldiers having a break are playing cards. This painting by the American artist Julian Scott contrasts a peaceful scene with the war. Playing cards has here nothing to do with vice or destiny it’s only a typical manner to pass time, especially for soldiers.
Gambling – which means poker - is here the trade of tough men. Sure it leads to trouble, so you have to be prepared to shoot it out.
