Cleveland Museum of Art

The Game of Checkers

Édouard VuillardLinkedCulture matchlcp-93b93d26d1f2

Date

1899

Medium

color lithograph

Culture

France, 19th century

Department

Prints

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Object ID

129167

Ambroise Vollard (1865–1939), a dealer in Impressionist paintings, was also an important print publisher. In 1895 he commissioned his first portfolio from Pierre Bonnard: 12 color lithographs called Some Aspects of Paris Life (one of them is shown nearby). This was followed by many other albums of prints, including Vuillard's Landscapes and Interiors . Bonnard and Vuillard were members of a group of artists called the Nabis—the Hebrew word for "prophet"—which evokes both their playful mysticism and their determination to develop a new artistic language based on the notion that form and color could be used expressively. The Nabis favored subjects of the modern city and middle-class family life depicted in a decorative and even whimsical manner. Vuillard's intimate scenes of comfortable domesticity are wonderful examples of the beautiful color lithography produced in the 1890s. Checkers is derived from the ancient Middle Eastern game of Qirkat.

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