Watercolor with pen and black ink over graphite on medium, slightly textured, cream laid paper
Dimensions:
Sheet: 5 1/2 x 7 3/8 inches (14 x 18.7 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1975.4.915
Classification:
Drawings & Watercolors
Collection:
Prints and Drawings
Subject Terms:
punch bowl | hats | woman | chess | military uniform | feather | drinking glass | men | chairs | genre subject | dog (animal)
Currently On View:
Not on view
Exhibition History:
Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2008-06-09 - 2008-08-17)Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (The State Hermitage Museum, 2007-10-23 - 2008-01-13)Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2007-07-11 - 2007-09-30)Pleasures and Pastimes (Yale Center for British Art, 1990-02-21 - 1990-04-29)The Pursuit of Happiness - A View of Life in Georgian England (Yale Center for British Art, 1977-04-19 - 1977-09-18)
Publications:
British Art at Yale, Apollo, v.105, April 1977, pp. 278-9, fig. 2, N1 .A54 + OVERSIZE (YCBA)Elisabeth Fairman, Pleasures and pastimes, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut, 1990, p. 13, no. 80, DA485 F25 1990 (YCBA)J. H. Plumb, The pursuit of happiness : a view of life in Georgian England : an exhibition selected from the Paul Mellon collection, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1977, p. 56, no. 117, pl. 117, N6766 Y34 1977 (YCBA)The Cunning Eye of Thomas Rowlandson, Apollo, vol.105, no. 182, April 1977, pp. 278-9, fig. 2, N1 A54 05:2 + (YCBA) Also available: N5220 M552 A7 1977 + (YCBA)Yale Center for British Art, Great British watercolors : from the Paul Mellon Collection, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2007, pp. 59-60, 62, no. 24, ND1928 .Y35 2007 (LC)+ Oversize (YCBA)
Gallery Label:
Fashionable stereotypes were Rowlandson’s stock in trade. In Checkmate he pits a young urban dandy against an aging naval officer in a battle of wits over a game of chess. While the dandy sits in a foppish posture and wears an expression of serious thought, the naval officer—whose fondness for rum and food has taken its physical toll—adopts a confident, manly pose. The appeal of this drawing lies not only in its comic contrast of two stereotypes, but also in the frisson provided by the absence of any clear narrative. The viewer is left to imagine any number of possible scenarios around this tense encounter over a chessboard. Gallery label for Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2008-06-09 - 2008-08-17)