Cardinals Playing Cards by Victor Marais-Milton

Victor Marais-Milton
1872-1948 | French

Cardinals Playing Cards

Signed “V. Marais-Milton” (lower right)
Oil on canvas

Two red-robed cardinals engage in a friendly game of cards in this oil on canvas by the French painter Victor Marais-Milton. The vibrantly hued piece illustrates the artist’s genius at rendering charming narratives in remarkable detail. Entitled Cardinals Playing Cards, the work is a superb example of Marais-Milton’s technical virtuosity—from the lace table covering to the finely carved furniture to the marble fireplace in the background, every detail is meticulously depicted. With his incredible attention to detail, Marais-Milton has crafted a clever story in a sumptuous style that still captivates today.

Such works satirizing the clergy would have been severely censured just a generation earlier. Yet, by the time Marais-Milton picked up the brush, the French public had grown discontent with the hypocrisy of the clergy, many of whom enjoyed lavish lifestyles. Cardinal paintings such as this became highly popular during the period, and Marais-Milton emerged alongside Georges Croegaert, Marcel Brunery and Jehan Georges Vibert as the leading painters of the genre.

Born in 1872 just outside of Paris, Marais-Milton was a student of Ernest Meissonnier, one of the most important genre painters of his generation. Marais-Milton naturally adopted the style of his mentor, and he worked in this fashion throughout his career. Similar to other clergy painters, much of his output centered on anecdotal depictions of cardinal painters. It is for these works that he is best remembered today.

Canvas: 19 3/8″ high x 23 3/8″ wide (49.21 x 59.37 cm)
Frame: 27″ high x 31″ wide (68.58 x 78.74 cm)