Figure 1.-- We notice many French artists depicting fashionable adults, presumably aristocrats, mostly women playing the game in lovely outdoor settings. We do not know for sure if peasants played the game, but we do know that no one painted them if they did. After the Revolution in became more of a children's game. It was a perfect children's game. All you needed was a blindfold, it could be played indoors or outdoors, children of all ages could play, both boys and girls, and only a few players were needed. Here we see a depiction by genre artist Edmond Castan. Peasant children are playing Blind Man's Buff indoors, quite a shift in the game. Notice that some of the children are wearing smocks. We have not been able to find the date Castan depicted them. We would guess the 1870s.

We do not have much information on play in France. Many of the play activities seem European wide including America. The games may have different name, but are basically the same. One such game which at first was played by adults was Blind Man's Buff. It coild be played inoors ot outdoors. The tramnslation is 'buff de l'aveugle', but it was called 'colin-maillard'. This came from a medieval fight between a French lord of Louvain and a man named Colin who fought with a mallet and was blinded in the battle. We notice many French artists depicting fashionable adults, presumably aristocrats, mostly women playing the game in lovely outdoor settings. We do not know for sure if peasants played the game, but we do know that no one painted them if they did. After the Revolution in became more of a children's game. Itvwas a perfect children's game. All you needed was a blindfold, it could be played indoors or outdoors, children of all ages could play, bith boys and girls, and only a few players were needed. Here we see avdepiction by genre artist Edmond Castan. Peasant children are playing Blind Man's Buff indoors, quite a shift in the game. Notice that some of the children are wearing smocks. We are not sure if they are wearing school smocks or if the smocks are their every day wear.

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Created: 9:18 PM 10/31/2019
Last updated: 19:18 PM 10/31/2019