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The 19th century,
despite being the age of Romanticism in Chess, offered little in romance,
love or sex. Whether this was because of attitudes of the times or
because Chess was undergoing such serious growing pains that there was
little tolerance for reflecting on its more playful side, the result was a
century of aloofness and abstinence.
The picture below gives an
indication of how women fit into the chess scene in the 19th
century.
Ideas of chess and romance seemed fairly remote. The idea of chess and sex,
almost impossible.
Mrs. Ritchie as Chess - 1876
Lady Anne Isabella
(Thackeray) Ritchie (1837-1919) was the eldest daughter of William
Makepeace Thackeray. Acquainted with the likes of Elizabeth Barrett
Browning, Jane Carlyle, and Julia Margaret Cameron, and an author in
her own right, she mostly explored the roles of women in society.
The 20th century was another story altogether.
Perhaps Chess matured and with the confidence that comes with maturity,
finally opened itself fully, almost hedonistically, to the pleasures beyond
the 64 squares. In any event, as the century moved on, women became a common
focal point in this male-dominated activity. During the pre-WWII era,
romance seemed more represented than sex, but from that time until the
present, particularly with the advent of the internet, the physical has
dominated the ideal. We've been able to peek into the past mostly through
art (paintings and sculpture), literature and published accounts, but while
those are still excellent methods even today, as time moved on, additional
portals opened for us such as films, advertising, unpublished works found
randomly on the internet, even blogs and websites.
Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp, born on July 28, 1897, was one
of the most influential artists of the 20th century, believing
that art should engage the mind more so than the eye.
His sculpture, The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors,
Even, also called The Large Glass, was completed by 1923 (and
exhibited in 1926). A version of it serves as a backdrop for this 1963 photograph
(by
Julian Wasser) of Duchamp playing chess with a naked Eve Babitz.
In
1923 Duchamp also took part in his first chess tournament, finishing 3rd.
Duchamp would essentially, though never completely, abandon art to pursue a career in Chess.
Eve Babitz, who was 22 when this photograph was taken, later
wrote her account of the event in an article for Esquire magazine (September
1991 - Vol. 116, No. 3), entitled, I was a Naked Pawn for Art:
Being a True Account of the Day Marcel Duchamp Put the West Coast
Underground on the Culture Map by Playing Chess in Pasadena with the Author,
Who Was at the Moment an Unclothed Young Woman with a Lot to Learn.
Later, this same article was shortened and puffed up with additional
photographs as Marcel Prefers Nudes for Photographing the L. A.
Art Scene 1955-1975 by Craig Krull [Smart
Art Press, Santa Monica, 1996, pp. 40-45] Eve Babitz developed into a
fairly prolific and acclaimed
author and a graphic designer. Paul Karlstrom conducted an
Oral History Interview with Babitz for the Archives of American Art
concerning her association with Duchamp.
John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) painted The Chess Game
Sargent was supposedly fond of Chess and played quite a bit during his
painting outings. This picture was painted in 1907 during a trip to Purtud,
a small town in the Val d'Aosta on the Italian-Swiss border. His niece and
valet acted as the models.
To the right above is a preliminary sketch for his idea of
painting a man and woman at chess.
Sargent's painting harkens back to similar themed romantic
Chess images of earlier times such as the one on the left.
Various prints from the early 20th century reveal the romantic attitude
of that time as well as the association between the game of love and the
game of chess.
1902 |
1910
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1916 |
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| 1920 |
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Yet, there was a place for the more erotic, as this 1914
painting, Der Sommer, suggests:
And there was still the ever-popular Chess Dress
1910
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