"Chess Players"

ARTIST
Hey, Paul, 1867-1952, artist
TITLE
Chess players
OTHER TITLE(S)
Die Schachspieler
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
1 print : etching ; sheet size 11 1/2" x 15" (30 x 39 cm.)
Date: 1898

SUMMARY
Three men are sitting around a chess board, two are playing and one is observing. The men are all late middle aged to old aged. The print has some fine details, and cross hatching is used extensively. On the table, besides the the chess set, are two coffee cups and a glass of water. Lower left in margin in pencil “original etching” in German. Lower right margin in pencil “chess players” written in German. No visible signature. The same etching by Paul Hey can be found in the collection of the Leo Baeck Institute in New York City. Under UV plexiglass. Professionally matted and framed in a simulated black wood frame. Overall framed measurements are 13.75 by 16.25 inches. Provenance: A Sarasota, Florida collector.

Paul Hey was a German painter, illustrator, and graphic artist born in Munich in 1867. He studied at the Munich Academy with Karl Raupp, Johann Caspar Herterich, and Ludwig von Löfftz from 1886 to 1889. Hey served in the 1st Bavarian Infantry Regiment in 1889 and went on study trips to Egypt, Italy, Greece, England, and Scotland. He was active as a draftsman for picture postcards for the Munich publisher Ottmar Zieher around 1900. Hey was conscripted as a war painter in World War I in 1914 and was appointed "royal professor" in 1917. He gained great popularity in 1939 through the illustrations of German fairy tales from the cigarette collectors' pictures commissioned by the Reemtsma company.