The Chess Game

Currently not on view

The Chess Game

1910

Marcel Duchamp (American (born France), 1887–1968)

This painting depicts the artist's brothers, Raymond Duchamp-Villon (on the left) and Jacques Villon (on the right), and their respective wives, Yvonne and Gaby, in the garden of Villon's studio on the outskirts of Paris. The two bearded men are shown hunched over a chessboard as they contemplate their next move, while their wives are excluded from the game. Yvonne Duchamp-Villon lies semi-recumbent on the mint-green grass and Gaby Villon nervously fingers a tea set in a scene of crushing boredom that has its roots in the restless ennui of Emma Bovary, the heroine of Gustave Flaubert's classic 1857 novel Madame Bovary. The artist is known to have admired the writings of Flaubert, who lived and worked in the countryside surrounding Rouen in Normandy, where Duchamp was also born and raised.

Currently not on view

Object Details

Title:

The Chess Game

Date:

1910

Artist:

Marcel Duchamp (American (born France), 1887–1968)

Medium:

Oil on canvas

Dimensions:

44 7/8 x 57 11/16 inches (114 x 146.5 cm) Framed: 47 × 59 11/16 × 2 5/16 inches (119.4 × 151.6 × 5.9 cm)

Classification:

Paintings

Credit Line:

The Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection, 1950

Accession Number:

1950-134-82

Geography:

Made in France, Europe

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Currently not on view