Page 28 - Francis Cotes - A winning end-game
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of presenting oneself to the world and were the British artistic group that gathered around
therefore of vital importance. The sitters’ Hogarth’s St Martin’s Lane Academy. It was
personal lives and relationships (or their chosen popularised by Edmund Hoyle’s treatise on
ve rsion of these) were on show and their piquet and chess, which went through many
audience, especially at the Academy, were the editions after first publication in 1744, and by the
fashionable world, the London quality, used to writings and stunning demonstrations of André
assemblies, plays and smart exhibitions. They Philidor, who played at Slaughter’s in the late
would be instantly intrigued, for example, to 1740s, and whose LA’ nalyze des Echecs of 1749
find William Earle Welby and Penelope could be read by beginners as well as advanced
playing chess –an immediate topic of chatter and players. A decade or so later, Hoyle built on this
surprise. And they might be even more intrigued accessibility in his Essay Towards making the
to see, as the chess board suggests, that husband Game of Chess Easily learned By those who know
and wife were both equal players. the Moves only, without the Assistance of a
Master, of 1761, dedicated to the Earl of
lll Northumberland. ‘Throughout this Treatise,’
wrote Hoyle, ‘You will find a regular Attack
Lacking letters or sitters’s books, we cannot and Defence, and the Games so dispos’d as
know who decided on the theme, the artist leaves room for the Player’s Invention.’ 6
or the sitters, but the choice to show the Welbys
playing chess was certainly striking. Their At the date of Cotes’s portrait, however, the
stance, and expressions of affection could sit real home of European chess, was still in Paris,
happily with the hierarchical view of marriage, particularly at the Café de la Régence in the
but the diverting suggestion here is that Place du Palais-Royal, favoured by the beau
Penelope is a match in skill and intelligence to monde and by philosophers such as Voltaire
William, a woman who can make her own and Rousseau. Contemporary chess sets like
moves with freedom. the one that William and Penelope are playing
with were known as ‘French Regence’, or
Chess was a fashionable pastime in both Regency sets, after the café, although the design
London and Paris, played not only in aristocratic
mansions houses but in the coffee houses 6. Essay Towards making the Game of Chess Easily learned By those
frequented by artists, like Slaughter’s Coffee who know the Moves only, without the Assistance of a Master,
House in St. Martin’s Lane, the early centre of Preface
28
