Even though Daumier created over 4,000 lithographs throughout his lifetime, he also was a talented painter, as exemplified by The Chess Players. His style was much more impressionistic, including elements of traditional painting, including perspective and shading. Most of Daumier’s work contained elements of satire and a commentary on a social or political situation, and this painting seems to have little to say, other than to present a beautifully painted rendering of two men sitting at a chess game, thoughtfully engaged in their play. Rather than portraying the folly of the bourgeois class, this painting seems to simply illustrate the past time of a friendly game of chess.
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