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Game of Checkers
Artist Jean Discart
Jean Baptiste Discart lived
from 1850 to 1920 in France.
- Checkers artist Jean Discart was
a French Academic classical artist who
favored genre painting of daily street
scenes in Northern Africa, possibly Egypt.
- Jean Discart was an Orientals who depicted
street scenes with a natural realism and
truth that told a clear story in detailed
motifs of the area.
- Game of checkers artist Jean Discart’s ‘The
Draughts Players’ (Checkers Players)
and his other Arab street scenes depicted
with clarity and detail the theme and mood
within the setting of each motif, and the
story in each panel was clear, whether
the image was two Arabs playing a leisurely
game of checkers or a man selling wares
or three musicians enjoying a session together.
- The diamond patterns in the floor matched
a similar pattern in the wall behind the
game of checkers players and unify the
composition foreground and background and
yet contrast the folds in the traditional
dress of the Arab men, who were naturally
posed at the checkerboard.
- The artist used warm, rich tones of red offset by
black and neutral cream and yellow colors to bring
depth and realism to the scene.
- In each motif, traditional Arab costumes embody
the postures of the figures and enhance the theme in
each painting with classical detail and soft earth
tones balanced by the touch of bold colors in the carpet,
table design or wall decoration.
- The genre setting of a typical daily
scene in this part of the world were embellished
with mini portraits of the Arab checkers
players, musicians or an artist street vendor.
- Jean Discart’s representation truly
gave the viewer a glimpse of the Arab culture
in his pictorial renditions within these
local street scenes and were certainly
an excellent example of the classical style
of painting prominent in France at the time.
Charcoal study
Oil Painting 1927
Jogo de damas Checkers Game
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