Lot 168
  • 168

MARC CHAGALL | Bouquet dans la nuit

Estimate
350,000 - 450,000 USD
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Description

  • Marc Chagall
  • Bouquet dans la nuit
  • Signed Marc Chagall (lower right)
  • Oil and brush and ink on board
  • 14 7/8 by 22 7/8 in.
  • 37.8 by 57.7 cm
  • Painted in 1966.

Provenance

Gallery Maeght, Paris
Stephen Hahn Gallery, New York
Acquired from the above on February 19, 1969

Condition

The work is in excellent condition. The board is sound.The impasto is well preserved and the colors are bright and fresh. Under UV inspection, no retouching is apparent.
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

Bouquet dans la nuit blends the genres of still life, landscape and self-portrait into a classic Chagall dreamscape. The affinity between painting and dreaming is a leitmotif in his work and the surreal elements are especially prominent here, from pairs of eyes on the walls of the left-hand house to the double appearance of the artist who is both seen behind his easel on the right and clasping his bride above. In the paintings of Surrealists from the 1930s and 1940s the theme of night provides a backdrop for unconscious fears, but for Chagall the opposite seems true. His idiom and palette are closer to that of Van Gogh’s The Starry Night and if anything, his love of color becomes even more apparent in his in his night-time paintings  

The startling bouquet in the foreground recalls the still lifes of Odilon Redon whose compositions exist in a comparable vacuum without reference to a table or perspective. Writing on the subject of flowers in Chagall’s work, Franz Meyer comments, "Many are simple still lifes with a bunch of red roses and white lilacs; in others, pairs of lovers and air-borne fiddlers gambol through space. The atmosphere encompasses and pervades the flowers like a magically light airy fluid, vibrant with their vitality" (Franz Meyer, Marc Chagall, New York, 1963, p. 369). 



The authenticity of this work has kindly been confirmed by the Comité Chagall.