Checkers Up at the Farm

John Rogers created an earlier version of this subject, in 1859-60, in a sculptural group called Checker Players (1949.276, 1936.717). It shows two men vying at the game. The opponents are pointedly differentiated by age, class, and occupation. An older city dweller—wearing a suit, spats, and fashionable muttonchops—hunches over the board and strokes his chin in thought. A young farmer plays across from him. He sits bolt upright and appears clean-shaven and simply dressed in shirtsleeves and sturdy boots. He points out his winning position to the older gentleman with a hearty laugh.

Checkers Up at the Farm, created in 1875, revisits the earlier subject but showcases Rogers’ development as an artist. It demonstrates a newfound mastery of texture, detail, human anatomy, and expression and presents a more complex figural group. Two additional characters appear: the city gentleman's wife, who observes the game with interest, and a baby who tries to kick the checkers off the board. Rogers’ own wife, Hattie, posed as the woman.

The bronze sculpture shown here served as the master model for plaster versions of the sculpture that Rogers sold to middle-class Americans. The composition struck a chord. His most popular group next to Coming to the Parson, it sold about 5,000 plasters. During a period of growing class differences and a demographic shift from the countryside to the city, critics relished telling the tale of the simple farmer besting the sophisticated urbanite. The city gentleman is gently satirized: not only does he lose, but the traditionally feminine fan the he holds compromises his masculinity. Yet he accepts his defeat with an expression of good humor. His easy and benevolent acknowledgment of his country opponent's virtues allowed both urban and rural Americans to share in the joke.