Lot 23
  • 23

Marc Chagall

Estimate
1,200,000 - 1,800,000 USD
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Description

  • Marc Chagall
  • Les Deux bouquets
  • Signed Chagall and dated 926 (lower right)
  • Oil on canvas
  • 39 1/2 by 28 3/4 in.
  • 100.7 by 73 cm

Provenance

Rudolf R. Bauer, Frankfurt

Private Collection (acquired from the above in 1929 and sold: Christie's, New York, May 8, 1991, lot 15)

Private Collection (acquired at the above sale and sold: Sotheby's, New York, November 16, 1998, lot 68)

Private Collection (acquired at the above sale and sold: Sotheby's New York, November 7. 2006, lot 81)

Acquired at the above sale

Literature

Franz Meyer, Marc Chagall, Life and Work, New York, 1963, no. 514, illustrated p. 754

Condition

Very good condition. Original canvas. There are some small spots and thin lines of retouching mainly in the extreme framing edges, visible under ultra-violet light. Apart from two tiny spots of paint loss in the green pigment of the lilies, and some slight, stable, craquelure, this work is in very good condition. The original thick impasto is intact and well-preserved.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Catalogue Note

In the Spring of 1926 Chagall and his wife Bella took a house in Mourillon, a small fishing village near Toulon.  This first contact with the Mediterranean and its southern light encouraged Chagall to lighten his palette, lending his compositions an element of transparency, as evident in Les Deux bouquets.

Commenting on Chagall’s works painted in the summer of 1926, Franz Meyer noted how “Chagall was overwhelmed by the brightness of the sea.  His Breton pictures were already permeated by over-bright, chalky-cool reflections.  But the Mediterranean affected him differently, as a triumphal song of color in the vast, luminous space.  He was also thrilled by the bunches of flowers Bella brought home from the market day after day; their dense, pure, bright colors served him as a link with the landscape.  In many of his pictures a bouquet is silhouetted against the sea on a chair, a small table or the windowsill [such as the present work].  Delicate panicles, campanulas, and the great white calyces of arum lilies stand out against the foliage, bearers of light that also reflect the brightness of the distance.  All is shot through with white – not like the blinding snow of the Double Portrait or the delicate cloudiness of the On the Donkey but like the primordial  substance that illuminates the colors” (Franz Meyer, Marc Chagall, Life and Work, London, 1963, p. 348). 

The first owner of record of this picture was the artist Rudolph Bauer, the Bauhaus colleague of Wassily Kandinsky.  Bauer's own paintings explored the interplay of vibrant colors and the relationship between negative and positive space.  Bauer was a favored artist of Solomon R. Guggenheim and a leader of the German avant-garde during the inter-war years, and it was during this time that he acquired the present work.