Gambling for the Buck
Artist
John Mix Stanley
(American, 1814 - 1872)
Date1867
Mediumoil on canvas
Dimensions20 x 15 7/8 inches (50.8 x 40.3 cm)
Frame: 28 1/2 × 24 1/2 × 4 5/8 inches (72.4 × 62.2 × 11.7 cm)
Frame: 28 1/2 × 24 1/2 × 4 5/8 inches (72.4 × 62.2 × 11.7 cm)
Credit LineBequest of H.J. Lutcher Stark, 1965
Object number31.23.11
ClassificationsPaintings
Label TextThis highly detailed representation of a card game, whose winner will take home the dead buck in the foreground, reveals John Mix Stanley's interest in photography. This scene of everyday life is orchestrated to provide variety in costume and an almost archaeological accounting of artifacts. The elevated, stagelike platform and the hanging skins that function almost as curtains add to the painting's theatricality.
ProvenanceArtist; by descent to his granddaughter Alice Stanley Acheson, Washington, D.C.[1]; purchased April 24, 1959 by H.J. Lutcher Stark [1887-1965]; bequeathed September 2, 1965 to the Nelda C. and H.J. Lutcher Stark Foundation; accessioned to the Stark Museum of Art
| 1. According to a letter to H.J. Lutcher Stark dated April 7, 1959 Alice Stanley Archeson seems to have owned this with her brother and sister.
On View
On view
John Mix Stanley
