if-statement inside of paintComponent makes it not paint

Question

I'm trying to write a solitaire game.
I would like to call repaint() when the game starts and paint the full deck
once only the first time repaint is called, but when I add the if-statement it
no longer paints.
Here is the code with the if-statement:

private void paintInitialDeck(Graphics g, Card card){
    card.paintCard(g);               
}

public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
    super.paintComponent(g);
    if (initialDrawing) {
        Card card;
        for (int i = 0; i < deck.size(); i++) {
            card = deck.get(i);
            card.setY((int) (50 + 0.2 * i));
            card.setX((int) (250 + 0.2 * i));

            paintInitialDeck(g, card);
        }
        initialDrawing = false;
    }
}  

It doesn't work, but if I remove the if statement and the initialDrawing = false then it works.
Problem is, I need the if-statement.
Anyone can help me understand this better?

ps.: initialDrawing is set to true to begin with. Also, it's really the initialDrawing = false
that makes the whole thing not paint.

Answer 1

The straight-forward solution would be

if (initialDrawing) {
    Card card;
    for (int i = 0; i < deck.size(); i++) {
        card = deck.get(i);
        card.setY((int) (50 + 0.2 * i));
        card.setX((int) (250 + 0.2 * i));
    }
    initialDrawing = false;
}
for (Card card : deck) {
    card.paintCard(g);
}

This however suggests, that the initialisation should be done elsewhere, maybe in the constructor. In general painting code should do just painting and may be called several times.