Marc Chagall

Private Collection, Switzerland
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1998

The canvas is not lined and there are no signs of retouching visible under UV light. This work is in good original condition. Colours: Overall accurate though more subtle, less red and more attractive in the original.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

The present work personifies the boundless imagination and masterful colouring of Chagall's later works. The iconography so particular to his artistic vision abounds in this painting – the painter, the lover, the sensually abundant bouquets and baskets of fruit. The broad horizontal format makes it particularly notable and allows the artist to imbue the work with a full narrative texture. He effortlessly harmonises the genres of still-life, portraiture and landscape into a successful dialogue permeated by a blue tonality that is so particular to his late œuvre.

By this point in his career, Chagall had moved to the south of France with his second wife, Vava, and the couple revelled in the tranquil and inspiring environs. Where many of his contemporaries would venture outside to paint en plein air, Chagall preferred the limitless inspiration of his imagination. Given the active and bustling nature of his life in Paris and New York, Chagall had an abundance of personal imagery on which he focused his preoccupations. The originality of his imagery is further accentuated through the historical structures of painterly composition which he challenges with every brushstroke. Chagall once wrote, 'If someone sees in my art only the search for pleasure, he's free to do so. Free also to consider how another reality is being involuntarily transformed into symbol, the illogical and psychical construction of forms and colors. On this point, as on others, I prefer to keep silent and let people think what they like' (Marc Chagall, quoted in Charles Sorlier, ed., Chagall by Chagall, New York, 1979, p. 120).

343L10005_COMP: Marc Chagall in his Studio in Saint-Paul.