Le Jeu de Cartes

Louis-Antoine Manceaux was a French painter, illustrator and lithographer. He was a resident of the Beaux-Arts De Marseille and later of the Beaux-Arts De Paris where he studied under Alexandre Cabanel, Alfred Delauney and Auguste Maillard. From 1884 until 1929 he exhibited his paintings regularly at the Salon des Artistes Français. Manceaux also provided illustrations and coloured lithographed drawings to the Parisian publisher Maurice Glomeau. Les Jeu de Cartes (The Card Game) is an elegant painting of a country drive on a summer’s day. However, the automobile, a Panhard & Levassor, has obviously run into some trouble and while the chauffeur is trying to fix the problem under the automobile, the fashionable happy few are playing a card game on the bonnet of the automobile which has strategically been placed under the shade of a tree along the road. The well to do people who could afford an automobile, could also afford to have someone to look after their automobile while they enjoy their sunny day out. Manceaux is believed to have painted himself into the work, being the man leaning against the tree. Also note the casual demeanour of the cow, obviously quite at home with automobiles.