Marc CHAGALL (1887-1985)
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Eastern Europe Man and woman Self portrait II
Chronology : 1920-1929 1924 1926 1928 1939 1956
See also : Eastern Europe Man and woman Self portrait II
Chronology : 1920-1929 1924 1926 1928 1939 1956
Intro
Marc Chagall was born Moishe Shagal near Vitebsk in Belarus, then part of the Russian empire. Piously raised by his parents in the Hasidic faith, he retained throughout his life its joyful liturgy.
Day after day Moishe's father Zachar went to make a prayer in the synagogue before executing his hard work carrying heavy barrels for a herring merchant. Escaping such a slavish burden for a few hours in the holy days, he displayed his great paternal kindliness.
Trained as an artist, Moishe moved to Paris in the path of his teacher Leon Bakst, the decorator of the Ballets Russes. A resident from the fall of 1911 in the cité La Ruche near Montparnasse, Marc Chagall avidly visits the Paris museums and galleries. He is dazzled by the processing of the most vivid colors in the former Fauviste style.
Paying a heartfelt tribute to his beloved father is quite natural for this hypersensitive artist. Le Père, oil on canvas 80 x 45 cm, is arguably one of his earliest works made in La Ruche. Chagall lost it with all his La Ruche works after he left Europe in 1914. Having managed to reacquire it after the Second World War, he convincingly dated it 1911. It was sold for $ 7.4M by Phillips on November 15, 2022, lot 17.
Le Père is painted in the Fauviste style with contrasted vivid colors. It is focusing on the white face surrounded by a full black beard and on the dark eyes edged in a wide flamboyant red.
Day after day Moishe's father Zachar went to make a prayer in the synagogue before executing his hard work carrying heavy barrels for a herring merchant. Escaping such a slavish burden for a few hours in the holy days, he displayed his great paternal kindliness.
Trained as an artist, Moishe moved to Paris in the path of his teacher Leon Bakst, the decorator of the Ballets Russes. A resident from the fall of 1911 in the cité La Ruche near Montparnasse, Marc Chagall avidly visits the Paris museums and galleries. He is dazzled by the processing of the most vivid colors in the former Fauviste style.
Paying a heartfelt tribute to his beloved father is quite natural for this hypersensitive artist. Le Père, oil on canvas 80 x 45 cm, is arguably one of his earliest works made in La Ruche. Chagall lost it with all his La Ruche works after he left Europe in 1914. Having managed to reacquire it after the Second World War, he convincingly dated it 1911. It was sold for $ 7.4M by Phillips on November 15, 2022, lot 17.
Le Père is painted in the Fauviste style with contrasted vivid colors. It is focusing on the white face surrounded by a full black beard and on the dark eyes edged in a wide flamboyant red.
Au-dessus de la Ville
1
1915
1990 SOLD for $ 9.9M by Christie's
Marc Chagall and Bella fell in love in 1909 in their hometown Vitebsk. They parted from one another from 1910 when Marc moved to Paris and Bella was a student in Moscow. Back in Russia in 1914, they were re-united in a still intact deep love.
Au-dessus de la Ville, conceived in 1914, expresses in joyous colors their dreamlike bliss. Marc is gently holding his fiancée in a horizontal floating in the blue sky high above the Vitebsk cityscape. Her outstretched arm is leading the way to happiness. Breton was to acknowledge Chagall as a forerunner of surréalisme. This gouache, distemper, black crayon and paper 36 x 50 cm was sold for £ 1.8M by Sotheby's on June 22, 2011, lot 4.
The couple married in 1915. A very similar remake from that year in oil on board 48 x 70 cm was sold for $ 9.9M by Christie's on May 15, 1990.
A large size oil on canvas 140 x 200 cm is dated ca 1914-1918.
Au-dessus de la Ville, conceived in 1914, expresses in joyous colors their dreamlike bliss. Marc is gently holding his fiancée in a horizontal floating in the blue sky high above the Vitebsk cityscape. Her outstretched arm is leading the way to happiness. Breton was to acknowledge Chagall as a forerunner of surréalisme. This gouache, distemper, black crayon and paper 36 x 50 cm was sold for £ 1.8M by Sotheby's on June 22, 2011, lot 4.
The couple married in 1915. A very similar remake from that year in oil on board 48 x 70 cm was sold for $ 9.9M by Christie's on May 15, 1990.
A large size oil on canvas 140 x 200 cm is dated ca 1914-1918.
2
1924
2023 SOLD for $ 15.6M by Sotheby's
Marc and Bella moved from Moscow to France in 1923. In 1924 in Paris, Marc painted a brighter remake of Au-dessus de la ville. This oil on canvas 68 x 91 cm was sold for $ 15.6M from a lower estimate of $ 12M by Sotheby's on November 13, 2023, lot 5.
1926 Les Trois Acrobates
2013 SOLD for $ 13M by Christie's
Marc Chagall only listens to his fancy, and gives the impression of ignoring the harsh constraints of his time. He cannot be attached to any school. He is a rare example of a hypersensitive and empathetic artist who shares his wonderful feelings. The closest example in the history of modern art is perhaps the "Douanier" Rousseau.
But nothing is easy. Chagall had its first success in Paris, but he was blocked in Russia by the revolution. When he is back in Paris in 1923 many things have changed. His friends have not forgotten his poetic processing of colors. In addition, the Surrealists consider him as one of their precursors, a pioneer in dream art.
Events had dispersed the oil paintings and gouaches of Chagall. To maintain his reputation, he remade by memory his most significant pre-war works. He was strongly encouraged by Vollard with whom he developed some series of prints.
The performance of the circus was more than entertainment for Chagall. He viewed it as a theatrical counterpart of the Hasidic use to preach joy. Same applies to dance and music. Throughout his life his art is populated with acrobats, violinists, circus animals and attending crowds.
On May 8, 2013, Christie's sold Les Trois Acrobates. Painted in 1926, this oil on canvas 116 x 88 cm is the replica of a lost painting.
The can-can dancing girl plays the lead, ready to twirl, and looking at us with a friendly smile. Farther, the two men are waiting their turn, peacefully. The colors are cheerful and the details include pleasant surprises such as the continuity of motifs between suit and stocking or the funny ghost animal installed on the shoulder of a man.
This painting is not surreal, it is simply a masterpiece of poetic and candid art in a dramatic staging that Marc considered as similar to religious art. It was sold for $ 13M from a lower estimate of $ 6M, lot 40. Please watch the video shared by Christie's.
But nothing is easy. Chagall had its first success in Paris, but he was blocked in Russia by the revolution. When he is back in Paris in 1923 many things have changed. His friends have not forgotten his poetic processing of colors. In addition, the Surrealists consider him as one of their precursors, a pioneer in dream art.
Events had dispersed the oil paintings and gouaches of Chagall. To maintain his reputation, he remade by memory his most significant pre-war works. He was strongly encouraged by Vollard with whom he developed some series of prints.
The performance of the circus was more than entertainment for Chagall. He viewed it as a theatrical counterpart of the Hasidic use to preach joy. Same applies to dance and music. Throughout his life his art is populated with acrobats, violinists, circus animals and attending crowds.
On May 8, 2013, Christie's sold Les Trois Acrobates. Painted in 1926, this oil on canvas 116 x 88 cm is the replica of a lost painting.
The can-can dancing girl plays the lead, ready to twirl, and looking at us with a friendly smile. Farther, the two men are waiting their turn, peacefully. The colors are cheerful and the details include pleasant surprises such as the continuity of motifs between suit and stocking or the funny ghost animal installed on the shoulder of a man.
This painting is not surreal, it is simply a masterpiece of poetic and candid art in a dramatic staging that Marc considered as similar to religious art. It was sold for $ 13M from a lower estimate of $ 6M, lot 40. Please watch the video shared by Christie's.
1928 Les Amoureux
2017 SOLD for $ 28.5M by Sotheby's
Marc and Bella Chagall are charming in their total empathy for one another. On November 14, 2017, Sotheby's sold for $ 28.5M from a lower estimate of $ 12M Les Amoureux, oil on canvas 117 x 90 cm painted by Marc in 1928, lot 8.
The theme of lovers portraying his own couple is recurrent in the art of Chagall but this work is especially touching by the attitudes, the realism of the very recognizable faces and some discretion of the surrealist attributes.
In their beatitude the lovers are floating. The young man with closed eyes is resting his head between the cheek and the shoulder of the woman. She gently welcomes this enthusiastic impulse but her eyes wide open indicate the lucidity with which she guides in real life this innocent husband.
Paris is their nest. In that same year Marc painted Les Mariés de la Tour Eiffel where their dear little Ida is disguised as a floating angel to present the bouquet. This oil on canvas 90 x 117 cm was sold for £ 7M by Christie's on February 2, 2016.
Let's go back to our Amoureux. Marc does not miss to express his gratitude to his host country. The tricolor dress of Bella ends with a blue in which is transposed the sky centered by a dazzling sun. In this sky a tiny bird comes to offer its auspices to the embraced couple. Leaves and flowers bring their frame to this ethereal scene.
Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's in which the love of Marc and Bella is commented by one of their granddaughters.
The theme of lovers portraying his own couple is recurrent in the art of Chagall but this work is especially touching by the attitudes, the realism of the very recognizable faces and some discretion of the surrealist attributes.
In their beatitude the lovers are floating. The young man with closed eyes is resting his head between the cheek and the shoulder of the woman. She gently welcomes this enthusiastic impulse but her eyes wide open indicate the lucidity with which she guides in real life this innocent husband.
Paris is their nest. In that same year Marc painted Les Mariés de la Tour Eiffel where their dear little Ida is disguised as a floating angel to present the bouquet. This oil on canvas 90 x 117 cm was sold for £ 7M by Christie's on February 2, 2016.
Let's go back to our Amoureux. Marc does not miss to express his gratitude to his host country. The tricolor dress of Bella ends with a blue in which is transposed the sky centered by a dazzling sun. In this sky a tiny bird comes to offer its auspices to the embraced couple. Leaves and flowers bring their frame to this ethereal scene.
Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's in which the love of Marc and Bella is commented by one of their granddaughters.
1928 Les Mariés de la Tour Eiffel
2016 SOLD for £ 7M by Christie's
In his first long stay in Paris from 1910 to 1914, Marc Chagall admired the joyous city under the protection of its benefactor totem, the Eiffel Tower.
The following years were very hard, but his return to Paris in 1923 with his wife Bella opens to this hypersensitive artist the happiest period of his life. His little family now lives in comfort thanks to a contract with the dealer Bernheim-Jeune and to the projects of illustrations undertaken with Vollard.
Few figurative artists managed to express a perfect happiness. On February 2, 2016, Christie's sold for £ 7M from a lower estimate of £ 4.8M Les Mariés de la Tour Eiffel, oil on canvas 90 x 117 cm painted in 1928, lot 24.
The title is nice. Marc had married his muse thirteen years earlier but their couple in the lower right of the image retains the freshness of tenderly embraced newlyweds. Both gaze out towards the viewer while their daughter Ida aged 12 flies with her angel wings through a window to present to her parents a big bouquet of flowers.
Paris provided them the happiness and the colors are joyous. The Eiffel Tower is viewed beyond the gently animated green lawn of the Champ de Mars. The surrealism in the manner of Chagall is included : behind the Tower, trees float like clouds, bringing an additional lightness to this romantic composition.
The following years were very hard, but his return to Paris in 1923 with his wife Bella opens to this hypersensitive artist the happiest period of his life. His little family now lives in comfort thanks to a contract with the dealer Bernheim-Jeune and to the projects of illustrations undertaken with Vollard.
Few figurative artists managed to express a perfect happiness. On February 2, 2016, Christie's sold for £ 7M from a lower estimate of £ 4.8M Les Mariés de la Tour Eiffel, oil on canvas 90 x 117 cm painted in 1928, lot 24.
The title is nice. Marc had married his muse thirteen years earlier but their couple in the lower right of the image retains the freshness of tenderly embraced newlyweds. Both gaze out towards the viewer while their daughter Ida aged 12 flies with her angel wings through a window to present to her parents a big bouquet of flowers.
Paris provided them the happiness and the colors are joyous. The Eiffel Tower is viewed beyond the gently animated green lawn of the Champ de Mars. The surrealism in the manner of Chagall is included : behind the Tower, trees float like clouds, bringing an additional lightness to this romantic composition.
1939 Les Trois Cierges
2017 SOLD for $ 14.6M by Christie's
At the end of the 1930s the Nazis made themselves increasingly involved in French affairs. As early as 1937 they criticized the poetic art of the Belorussian immigrant Marc Chagall with his continuous evocations of Judaism and his characters floating in the air.
In 1939 Marc and Bella are worried but do not yet perceive that the Nazis will manage to physically eradicate the French Jews. They remember Vitebsk where they married in 1916 and express their roots with their skills : Bella by her stories in Yiddish and Mark by his painting.
On May 15, 2017, Christie's sold for $ 14.6M from a lower estimate of $ 8M Les Trois Cierges, oil on canvas 130 x 97 cm painted in 1939, lot 6 A.
As ever with Marc's surrealist style, the scenes are juxtaposed in various scales according to their importance conceived by the artist.
On the right side the levitating newlyweds are back to the happy time of Vitebsk. On the left, three tall candles are lit, marking the hope of the small family circle formed by Marc, Bella and their daughter Ida : the torments of the moment will be annihilated by melting in the wax. Secondary animation on the smaller scale includes flying angels, musicians and a view of the village.
In 1940 the persecution reached the whole French territory. Marc and Bella left France hurriedly. A few months later Ida and her husband joined them in the United States : in their crossing of the Atlantic that was made extremely dangerous by the war, they succeeded in transporting a large crate of artworks painted by Marc, including Les Trois Cierges which were thus saved from an inescapable destruction.
In the following year Les Trois Cierges is a major element in the exhibition devoted to Chagall's art by Pierre Matisse in New York, one of the most important initiatives within this transitional period in which the Americans discover the European and Russian modern art.
In 1939 Marc and Bella are worried but do not yet perceive that the Nazis will manage to physically eradicate the French Jews. They remember Vitebsk where they married in 1916 and express their roots with their skills : Bella by her stories in Yiddish and Mark by his painting.
On May 15, 2017, Christie's sold for $ 14.6M from a lower estimate of $ 8M Les Trois Cierges, oil on canvas 130 x 97 cm painted in 1939, lot 6 A.
As ever with Marc's surrealist style, the scenes are juxtaposed in various scales according to their importance conceived by the artist.
On the right side the levitating newlyweds are back to the happy time of Vitebsk. On the left, three tall candles are lit, marking the hope of the small family circle formed by Marc, Bella and their daughter Ida : the torments of the moment will be annihilated by melting in the wax. Secondary animation on the smaller scale includes flying angels, musicians and a view of the village.
In 1940 the persecution reached the whole French territory. Marc and Bella left France hurriedly. A few months later Ida and her husband joined them in the United States : in their crossing of the Atlantic that was made extremely dangerous by the war, they succeeded in transporting a large crate of artworks painted by Marc, including Les Trois Cierges which were thus saved from an inescapable destruction.
In the following year Les Trois Cierges is a major element in the exhibition devoted to Chagall's art by Pierre Matisse in New York, one of the most important initiatives within this transitional period in which the Americans discover the European and Russian modern art.
1939 Le Violoncelliste
2014 SOLD for £ 7M by Sotheby's
Marc Chagall is the artist of his poetic dreams inspired by his Jewish childhood. Le Violoniste, painted in Paris in 1912-1913, features a full frontal oversized fiddler flying in the air surrounded by small houses evoking Vitebsk. This street musician has a dark green face. The right foot just over a roof will inspire in 1964 a Broadway musical. That original plundered version has survived. It is now kept by the Stedelijk Museum.
During the first world war, Chagall lost most of his art although some of the works were not destroyed. They were together constituting his own world. Back in Paris in the 1920s, he managed to recreate his most significant themes. Doing it by memory, he brought significant changes. A 1926 replica of Les Trois Acrobates was sold for $ 13M by Christie's in 2013.
A new Violoniste is painted in 1923-1924. The re-arranged cityscape is not untidy. The feet of the green fiddler are posed on two roofs. A raised donkey appealed by the music is a symbol of the artist.
The version painted in 1928-1929, now titled Musicien, is also much modified. The fiddler is now a white bearded old man. His light green face is a more pleasant color and is cleverly opposed by the crimson violet of the coat. This oil on canvas 73 x 60 cm was sold for $ 6.9M by Christie's on May 9, 2007, lot 31.
Le Violoncelliste was painted in dense colors in 1939. The handsome standing cellist is full size of the picture. His feet out of field are certainly on the ground. Beside him the seated donkey selfie plays a tiny violin with a raised smiling head. The Vitebsk cityscape is much detailed.
The cellist has two faces, possibly inspired by the dual angle in Picasso's portraits, for altogether looking straight and sideways. His instrument takes the size and shape of his body in a similar surrealist experience as the two bodies in Les Jours Gigantesques by Magritte. The scenery is well lit below a night sky. He appears concerned, certainly by the threat of war : Chagall moved from Paris to the Val de Loire in that year.
This oil on canvas 100 x 74 cm was sold for £ 7M from a lower estimate of £ 3M by Sotheby's on February 5, 2014, lot 46.
During the first world war, Chagall lost most of his art although some of the works were not destroyed. They were together constituting his own world. Back in Paris in the 1920s, he managed to recreate his most significant themes. Doing it by memory, he brought significant changes. A 1926 replica of Les Trois Acrobates was sold for $ 13M by Christie's in 2013.
A new Violoniste is painted in 1923-1924. The re-arranged cityscape is not untidy. The feet of the green fiddler are posed on two roofs. A raised donkey appealed by the music is a symbol of the artist.
The version painted in 1928-1929, now titled Musicien, is also much modified. The fiddler is now a white bearded old man. His light green face is a more pleasant color and is cleverly opposed by the crimson violet of the coat. This oil on canvas 73 x 60 cm was sold for $ 6.9M by Christie's on May 9, 2007, lot 31.
Le Violoncelliste was painted in dense colors in 1939. The handsome standing cellist is full size of the picture. His feet out of field are certainly on the ground. Beside him the seated donkey selfie plays a tiny violin with a raised smiling head. The Vitebsk cityscape is much detailed.
The cellist has two faces, possibly inspired by the dual angle in Picasso's portraits, for altogether looking straight and sideways. His instrument takes the size and shape of his body in a similar surrealist experience as the two bodies in Les Jours Gigantesques by Magritte. The scenery is well lit below a night sky. He appears concerned, certainly by the threat of war : Chagall moved from Paris to the Val de Loire in that year.
This oil on canvas 100 x 74 cm was sold for £ 7M from a lower estimate of £ 3M by Sotheby's on February 5, 2014, lot 46.
1943 Le Jongleur
2022 SOLD for £ 8.9M by Christie's
Threatened by the anti-Jewish persecutions, Marc and Bella Chagall moved to New York City in 1941 after 18 years in France. Trying to escape his distress in a foreign country of which he did not speak the language, he lived close to the Jewish immigrant communities and entertained the most joyful of his themes, the circus.
Le Jongleur, painted in 1943, is an aggregation of scenes in various scales in Marc's signature style in bold colors.
The dominant figure is a winged juggler, dancing with a raised leg. He has the raised head of a rooster with a smiling beak and a friendly vivid gaze. The other characters include a ballerina in wedding dress, a woman riding a horse in the arena surrounded by the audience, and an equine head. A fiddler is cartouched on the jacket of the performer. The clock in the juggler's hand is a usual symbol of time which is nevertheless uncommon in Chagall's art.
This oil on canvas 110 x 79 cm was sold for £ 8.9M by Christie's on March 1, 2022, lot 55.
Marc painted in the same year his Yellow Crucifixion, a Jewish staging of Jesus's Passion amidst symbols of the Holocaust. Marc's distress went into despair in 1944 after Bella's untimely death in New York.
Le Jongleur, painted in 1943, is an aggregation of scenes in various scales in Marc's signature style in bold colors.
The dominant figure is a winged juggler, dancing with a raised leg. He has the raised head of a rooster with a smiling beak and a friendly vivid gaze. The other characters include a ballerina in wedding dress, a woman riding a horse in the arena surrounded by the audience, and an equine head. A fiddler is cartouched on the jacket of the performer. The clock in the juggler's hand is a usual symbol of time which is nevertheless uncommon in Chagall's art.
This oil on canvas 110 x 79 cm was sold for £ 8.9M by Christie's on March 1, 2022, lot 55.
Marc painted in the same year his Yellow Crucifixion, a Jewish staging of Jesus's Passion amidst symbols of the Holocaust. Marc's distress went into despair in 1944 after Bella's untimely death in New York.
1949 La Belle Rousse
2019 SOLD for $ 8M by Christie's
While they were in exile in New York in wartime, his adored wife Bella suddenly dies of a virus. Marc Chagall is desperate. Virginia, 28 years younger than Marc, bears him a son in 1946. That new built family returned in 1948 to France where they were re-united with Marc's daughter Ida.
Painted in 1949, La Belle Rousse, also known as Les Cheveux Rouges, displays their embracing couple behind an opulent bouquet of flowers, a frequent conjunction of themes in Marc's oeuvre of which the 1928 Les Amoureux, sold for $ 28.5M by Sotheby's in 2017, is a great example.
Virginia has a long hair in a saturated deep red. She is wearing an elegant worldly dress which is not a bridal gown, a symbol that Marc reserved for Bella. In real life Marc and Virginia, who did not follow the same religion, will not marry. The bouquet in a vase marks their declaration of love.
Marc's signature elements appear in small scale at the edges : the full Moon and, on the lower left, the smiling donkey's head associated with the violin.
This oil on canvas 115 x 90 cm was sold for $ 8M from a lower estimate of $ 4M by Christie's on May 13, 2019, lot 49A.
Virginia leaves Marc in 1952. Three months later, Marc marries Vava who had been introduced to him by Ida.
Painted in 1949, La Belle Rousse, also known as Les Cheveux Rouges, displays their embracing couple behind an opulent bouquet of flowers, a frequent conjunction of themes in Marc's oeuvre of which the 1928 Les Amoureux, sold for $ 28.5M by Sotheby's in 2017, is a great example.
Virginia has a long hair in a saturated deep red. She is wearing an elegant worldly dress which is not a bridal gown, a symbol that Marc reserved for Bella. In real life Marc and Virginia, who did not follow the same religion, will not marry. The bouquet in a vase marks their declaration of love.
Marc's signature elements appear in small scale at the edges : the full Moon and, on the lower left, the smiling donkey's head associated with the violin.
This oil on canvas 115 x 90 cm was sold for $ 8M from a lower estimate of $ 4M by Christie's on May 13, 2019, lot 49A.
Virginia leaves Marc in 1952. Three months later, Marc marries Vava who had been introduced to him by Ida.
1956 Le Grand Cirque
2017 SOLD for $ 16M by Sotheby's
The passion of Marc Chagall for the circus dates back to his Jewish childhood in Vitebsk. The clever Ambroise Vollard transferred his craze to Paris, where Marc and Bella were residing since 1923. Vollard had a private box at the Cirque d'Hiver where he frequently invited Chagall from 1927.
Back in France from 1948, Chagall revisited the Cirque d'Hiver in 1955 while a movie was being filmed. This visit reactivated his entrancement for the circus. From his many sketches therein, he prepared a monumental painting which is arguably his masterpiece on that theme.
Le Grand Cirque, oil and gouache on canvas 160 x 310 cm painted in 1956, was sold by Sotheby's for $ 13.8M on May 8, 2007, lot 40, and for $ 16M on November 14, 2017, lot 48.
In a blue dominant, it features several brightly lit performers and acrobats over an orchestra in the pit, and with the crowd of attendants in the rows.
Back in France from 1948, Chagall revisited the Cirque d'Hiver in 1955 while a movie was being filmed. This visit reactivated his entrancement for the circus. From his many sketches therein, he prepared a monumental painting which is arguably his masterpiece on that theme.
Le Grand Cirque, oil and gouache on canvas 160 x 310 cm painted in 1956, was sold by Sotheby's for $ 13.8M on May 8, 2007, lot 40, and for $ 16M on November 14, 2017, lot 48.
In a blue dominant, it features several brightly lit performers and acrobats over an orchestra in the pit, and with the crowd of attendants in the rows.
