Lando playing sabacc — Print & Oil Painting

A card table painted the way a Dutch interior is painted: one warm light source, brown shadow closing in on every side, and the whole story told by what is lying on the baize.

The near edge of the table runs across the bottom of the frame and it is the best passage in the picture. Engraved chips in cream, teal and oxblood lie in loose stacks, two blocks of dark cards sit squared off at the left, a short glass of something clear catches the light behind them, and a lit cigarillo rests on the rail with a thin line of smoke coming off it.

The player at the centre is enjoying himself far too much. Mustard shirt with a wide open collar, a patterned scarf hanging down the front, a neat moustache, and a grin held just short of laughter. His right hand is up beside his head, thumb and finger pinched on a small token, in the exact gesture of somebody about to make a point rather than a bet.

Two other players crowd the edges and both are given more anatomical attention than the man: at the left a heavy creature whose eyes ride on short stalks above a wide mouth, at the right a long-snouted alien with drooping facial tendrils, one hand resting near his own cigar. Neither of them looks amused.

The game is sabacc, and in this galaxy a single hand of it is enough to change the ownership of a starship, which is precisely what happened to the freighter this man used to own. From our Star Wars collection, beside the pilot who ended up flying it and the same smile painted over a drink instead of a deck.