Queen with Fool and Knight — Hérouard

A witty chess allegory in which a queen, her knight and her jester rehearse the courtly games of love.

Original French title: Un Problème de Jeu d'Échecs. Drawn by Chéri Hérouard. Published in La Vie Parisienne, Paris, c. 1920.

Chéri Hérouard was a master of La Vie Parisienne's allegorical mode, using the iconography of chess, cards and circus to dramatise the magazine's perennial subject — the small power-plays of fashionable life. The knight-and-jester pairing was a stock device for the foolish suitor and the gallant rival vying for the same indulgent queen.

Chromolithograph. Sheet size approximately 38.0 × 28.9 cm. Very Good.