# The Card Players

- By: Michael Sweerts (Brussels, 1618–1664)
- Date: c. 1646 - c. 1652
- Medium: canvas, oil paint (paint)
- Classification: painting
- Dimensions: depth 6.1 cm
- Museum: [Rijksmuseum](https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/SK-A-1958--fe99fd938ec712f12b52042cad92d603)
- Rights: [Public Domain Mark](http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/)
- Picture: https://iiif.micr.io/vBcAA/full/!1920,1080/0/default.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

This card game is interrupted by a brawl that has erupted. The players’ gazes and the outstretched arm of the man in front direct our attention to the right. The painting may symbolize idleness as a counterpart to Sweerts’ genre scenes of industrious artists from the same period. One person, however, is hard at ‘work’: a sly young pickpocket takes advantage of the chaos to rob the man in blue.