A Game of Chess

Alas, another lockdown weekend. What will you be doing to pass the time? ⁠ ⁠ This work, titled ‘The Chess Players’, is an oil-on-canvas painting by William Newenham Montague Orpen, before 1902. Orpen had quite a remarkable career; an Irish artist based in London, he was a hugely popular portraitist for the Edwardian-elite before becoming one of the most prominent war artists of the First World War. ⁠ ⁠ Following the war, he was commissioned to stay in France to paint portraits of the delegates of the Paris Peace Conference. It was here that he famously painted a controversial work inspired by what he felt was a lack of respect on the part of the politicians towards soldiers who had fought in the war.⁠ ⁠ Upon his return to London, he returned to painting portrait societies and enjoyed great commercial success. However, some of Orpen’s most well-known works are his striking self-portraits.⁠