Gamblers
ca. 1954
9 x 12 in. (22.9 x 30.5 cm)
Jacob Lawrence
United States
(Atlantic City, NJ, 1917 - 2000, Seattle, WA)
Object Type:
Painting
Medium and Support:
Tempera on gesso panel
Credit Line:
Marion Stratton Gould Fund
Accession Number:
1974.1
Location: Not currently on view
Compare the ominous and somber mood of Jacob Lawrence’s Gamblers with the upbeat and optimistic flavor of his painting Summer Street Scene in Harlem (MAG collection). The still and formal arrangement of figures and cards in Gamblers, the delicate floral vine that arches across the canvas, and the casket or tombstone forms behind the standing men create a scene that is very nearly funereal, perhaps suggesting the idea that life (and death) is a game of chance.
[Gallery label text, 2009]