Unexpected chess painting

[JustinHorton]

Some friends and neighbours of ours are moving house and the house to which they are moving has a certain amount of clutter in it. They are throwing much of that clutter out, as you would, or seeing if anybody is interested in taking or buying some of it. My wife is helping with this and they asked her if we had any interest in a painting. Here it is.



I don't think this is why we were offered it, matter of fact I don't actually think they'd really looked at it, but when my wife took a closer look



she noticed that there was a game of chess going on.



Well, that got my attention, and I now have yours. I am pretty sure that the painting is a reproduction so this is not an Antiques Roadshow affair or anything, but I would be interested in opinions, if there are any, as informed as possible, about the likely date, artist, merit or any other relevant aspect of the painting.

[John Upham]

Justin,

I will take a look at my recently received copy of Chess in Art and attempt some kind of recognition.

J.

[Stewart Reuben]

Justin, I suggest you offer £50 - provided the board is round the right way. It would madden you if not.

[John Moore]

Justin, why are you sure that it's a reproduction - or pretty sure.

[JustinHorton]

Well, there's no signature, no visible brushstrokes and it just strikes me as generally unlikely (Antiques Roadshow notwithstanding) that an original painting of this kind would be hanging around in a house in my village!

[John Moore]

Not being funny, but is there anything on the back of the picture. Sometimes (albeit rarely) the signature is there, but there might be other information.

[JustinHorton]

Presumably we'd have to take it out of the frame to see? My wife was talking about doing this, but I would have no idea what I would be doing

[John Moore]

Well yes. Perhaps you should ask your neighbours whether you can take it to an auction house and get an expert to have a look at it. Is there anywhere reasonably local to you. You could send them the picture you have and see if they are interested, even a little bit.

[JustinHorton]

Well, this may happen, but we are maybe getting ahead of ourselves. Really at the moment we're just interested in tracing its identity as best we can.

[JustinHorton]

In the mean time, it's been moved to our lock-up, so here's a more front-on shot than we've had before:

[NickFaulks]

I like the dog.

[JustinHorton]

Yeah, the way it's like it's just noticed the artist and recognises them

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Any updates on this?

Justin, is the location the painting was unearthed in Spain?

Any indication what period and culture the artist was depicting? Would it be 19th century and is the clothing English in style?

[Mick Norris]

It would be interesting to know how the painting got to Spain

The painting within the painting above the fire is a possible help in trying to work out what the artist was depicting?

[JustinHorton]

is the location the painting was unearthed in Spain?

Yes, it's a house in my village