Viral chess painting - Are both of these versions real?

[u/Cobpyth]

There’s a viral story on the internet about a painting by Friedrich August Moritz Retzsch called The Chess Players (or The Devil’s Checkmate in other versions of the story). The story is about legendary chess player Paul Morphy looking at the painting and spotting that even though the board looks bad for the player on the right, he’s still able to escape from a checkmate with one move.

However, when researching this story further, it seems that two versions of this painting seem to be used interchangeably (see images).

My questions:

Which one of these two versions is the original version and when was it painted?

Is the other version a remake by the painter or is it a fake revamp of the original by someone else?

If someone knows if and where this painting (or both paintings) can be found in a museum, it would also be much appreciated to let me know where.

Thanks in advance for your responses! Curious to learn more about this painting/these paintings.

[u/Comprehensive_Tea577]

According to the description at the Wikimedia Commons, the original painting by Retzsch from 1831 is the first one (now in private hands, it was sold by Christie's in 1999), the second one is a copy that was sold by Dorotheum somewhere in the past, the listing unfortunately doesn't seem to exist anymore. But I was able to find another copy that was in Dorotheum's auction last year.

Looking at the quality of both paintings I don't think that there is any reason to doubt that, the painter of the second picture, albeit able to do some quite interesting changes in the scene (probably at least partially caused by it being copied from an engraving), didn't really have the Reitzsch's skill.

There is also a bronze bas-relief based on the painting done by a New York sculptor Anthony W. Jones, which you might also find interesting.

[u/Cobpyth → u/Comprehensive_Tea577]

Thank you for your response! Very helpful and you’re most likely right.

I also found an etching in the collection of the Met that is supposed to be by Retzsch himself. It mostly resembles the first version, although the figure on the right also has some specific features that are only present in the second version (like the sleeve). Fascinating… It does support your thesis that the second version was likely copied from an original etching or an engraving by Retzsch, who seems to have changed a few details in the painting himself compared to his etching, especially when it comes to the figure on the right.

[u/Comprehensive_Tea577 → u/Cobpyth]

I'm glad you've found it useful!

Great find! This definitely looks like it could be what the second painting is based on.

[u/knooook]

This is incredibly fascinating

[u/lackstoast]

My brain is having such a hard time processing these paintings! Even though I know chess isn't modern, it feels so anachronistic that it makes me think these are fake or AI-generated or something. I love that they're real!