“With myself, or the Chess Game,” the Meat-eaters – overview of the painting 
- Author: Grigory Grigoryevich Mäsoedov
- Museum: Chess Museum, Moscow
- Year: 1907
Overview of the painting :
With itself, or the Chess Game – Grigory Grigoryevich Myasoedov.
Meat-eaters Grigory Grigoryevich is an outstanding Russian painter, participant and creator of traveling exhibitions of artists. In 1907-1908, the 36th exhibition of mobile workers was held, at which the work of Myasoedov “With Himself, or the Game of Chess” was presented.
Grigory Grigoryevich rarely turned to portraits. Its main directions are domestic, genre, historical plots, giving preference to Russian folk motives. But on a slope of the years, the Meat-eaters more often write portraits.
The painting “With Himself, or the Chess Game” stands apart from all the author’s late works, she has her long way to the place where she is currently in the chess museum.
After the death of the artist in 1911, the painting was sold to an unknown chess lover, then it enters the collection of chess experts and collector Dombrovsky V. AND.subsequently, the picture is considered lost, then listed in the funds of the Chess Federation of the Soviet Union and only in 1980 occupies its place of honor in the hall of the Chess Museum in Moscow.
It is still not known who is depicted on the author’s canvas. There are several versions. Perhaps these are chess players Petrov A. D. or Major General Urusov S. WITH., or maybe it’s a sitter or a portrait of Meat-eater himself, although, according to contemporaries, he was never interested in chess.
Well, we will not know the truth anymore, but if we assume that Grigory Grigoryevich painted himself, then in the portrait – a reflection of his internal state, his alternative personality.
He could consider chess game as an image of his destiny in the modern world, which is rapidly changing. A new century has come with technological progress, with changes in the economy and life of people, such cute landscapes, peasant patriarchal life and other topics that once inspired are becoming a thing of the past. He, as a person, is always active, well-educated, creative, witty, is out of work, with vitality. Perhaps the state of the devastated soul poured into the portrait and into its name. And the author is right, in fact, “with himself” remains every person at a certain moment in life.