Traveling from Russia as a young man in 1910, Chagall arrived in Paris with “a ripe color gift, a fresh, unashamed response to sentiment, a feeling for simple poetry and a sense of humor" (James J. Sweeney in Marc Chagall (exhibition catalogue), The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1946, n.p.). Cubism dominated the Parisian avant-garde, and in these early years Chagall’s closest friends Robert Delaunay and his wife Sonia Delaunay-Terk were both proponents of Orphism. An offshoot of the original Cubist movement, Orphism introduced vivid color and more varied technique to the dogmatic principles of Picasso and Braque.
It was not only the explosive colors and fractured planes of the Delaunays’ work that would stay with Chagall throughout his life, but an ingrained love of the city which would become his second home. “Chagall did not attempt to absorb the theoretical basis of orphism; rather, the lively use of colour in his hands was meant to highlight the emotional resonances and symbolism of the depicted scenes” (Chagall, Modern Master (exhibition catalogue), Tate Modern, London, 2013, n.p.). By the time the present work was completed in 1960, Chagall had long mastered the emotional impact of color, utilizing the bright reds, blues and yellows seen in Rêve d’amour to generate the romantic, dreamlike quality characteristic of his mature canvases.
(Center) Robert Delaunay, Tour Eiffel, 1926, oil on canvas, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris
(Right) Marc Chagall, Paysage de Paris en bleu, 1967, oil on canvas, sold: Sotheby's, New York, May 15, 2019, lot 212 for $1,340,000
Expanding on the Cubists’ disregard for traditional perspective, Chagall emphasized the flatness of his works through a lack of academic modeling and gradation. These new compositional techniques had been influenced by the rediscovery of the work of El Greco, a seventeenth-century Spanish artist whose mannerist figures and disregard for classical composition had only recently come to the fore. Greek by birth but a resident of Toledo, Spain, El Greco’s Baroque, swirling canvases were filled with stark colors and minimal shadows, illuminating new paths for the avant-garde. Delaunay had made several studies of El Greco’s work during an early trip to Toledo, and even modeled a series of drawings on his work.
“Of the offshoots of Cubism, Orphism was the movement most closely connected to El Greco’s oeuvre. Its creator, Robert Delaunay, drew inspiration from his dynamic sense of colour and scheme of composition in planes. Delaunay lived in Spain for a long time with his wife Sonia and was familiar with the El Greco paintings in the Prado and also in Toledo, where the Saint Sebastian that influenced his series of gypsies could be seen at the Casa Museo del Greco”
(right) El Greco, The Vision of Saint John, circa 1608-1614, oil on canvas, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
While Chagall may not have channeled the religious fervor of El Greco, his works instead highlight the divine in everyday life, imbuing his lovers, flowers and landscapes with all the spirituality of a holy work. Freed from the tenets of traditional perspective, Chagall could float the familiar symbols of his work throughout the canvas, seemingly detached from the ground beneath them.
