Radiating a dream-like vibrancy, Composition en rouge encapsulates Marc Chagall’s whimsical iconography and passion for color and light. Executed in 1973, the present work embodies the life-affirming vision of peace that pervaded the final decades of his output following the grief and exile endured throughout the second world war. Evincing the delight Chagall found in living near Saint-Paul de Vence, France with his wife Vava, Composition en rouge teems with sentimentality, nostalgia and an appreciation of all things beautiful.

Ablaze with a fiery crimson reflective of his Côte d'Azur environs, Composition en rouge exudes a triumphant immediacy. Becoming increasingly luminescent throughout his time in the south of France, Chagall’s palette achieves the height of its vibrancy in the present work. As Franz Meyer expounds, “The light, the vegetation, the rhythm of life all contributed to the rise of a more relaxed, airy, sensuous style in which the magic of color dominates more and more with the passing years. At Vence he witnessed the daily miracle of growth and blossoming in the mild, strong all-pervading light—an experience in which earth and matter had their place” (Franz Meyer, Marc Chagall, London, 1964, p. 519). The painting’s numerous elements are emphasized and united by Chagall’s commanding use of red. Jewel-like planes of yellows, blues and greens energize the composition while operating independently of the depicted figures and objects. Achieving an effect of light-filled translucency, these bursts of color communicate the impact of his prolific work in stained glass throughout the 1960s and 1970s, including notable commissions for the Haddassah Medical Center, Jerusalem; the United Nations, New York; and the Fraumünster Cathedral, Zurich, among others (see fig. 1).

Containing several of the most crucial elements in the artist’s allegorical visual lexicon, developed from his association with various movements including Fauvism, Orphism and Surrealism (see fig. 2), Composition en rouge muses on Chagall’s wistful memories of the past while also conveying his present happiness. This mystical landscape simultaneously contains both the villages of his childhood home in Russia and the Mediterranean coastal towns in the south of France. Dominating the lower portion of the composition is the familiar townscape of Chagall’s native Vitebsk, where the artist experienced his earliest forays into artistic expression. Although Vitebsk was irrevocably changed during both world wars, memories of the harmony found in rural life provided emotional and mental refuge for the artist throughout his mature years.

The artist here makes full play of his beguiling and deeply personal world of childhood memories, incorporating imagery of his agrarian roots and domesticity with his characteristic spatial experimentation. Scattered about the night sky under a crescent moon are myriad figures that each carry a specific symbolic resonance from the artist, from a cockerel that suggests the artist’s alter-ego to a goat and donkey. As Chagall expounds, “The fact that I made use of cows, milkmaids, roosters and provincial Russian architecture as my source forms is because they are part of the environment from which I spring and which undoubtedly left the deepest impression on my visual memory of the experiences I have” (the artist quoted in Benjamin Harshav, ed., Marc Chagall on Art and Culture, Stanford, 2003, p. 83).

Composition en rouge is a celebration of Chagall’s enduring adoration for the two major loves of his life. A young Bella Rosenfeld, his first wife, here dominates the center of the composition. The artist met Bella shortly before his first departure from Russia in 1910, after which she became an unabating influence in his life. Retaining a profound presence even after her sudden death in 1944, Bella figures in many of Chagall’s most celebrated works. The present work manifests the joy in his marriage to Valentina “Vava” Brodsky, whom he met a few years after the death of Bella. Bouquets, an enduring emblem of abundance and romantic love throughout Chagall’s oeuvre, are here whimsically transfigured into flowering trees.

Conveying the exuberance of his inventive inner world, Composition en rouge comes to life through vivacious color and the dynamic energy of its dynamic composition. A paradigmatic example of the inventiveness for which Marc Chagall is most celebrated, the present work reflects his own personal delight in the act of artistic creation. Composition en rouge typifies the potent humanism of his oeuvre as conveyed by Alexander Liberman: "One must look at his paintings closely to experience their full power. After the impact of the overall effect, there is the joy of the close-up discovery. In this intimate scrutiny, the slightest variation takes on immense importance. We cannot concentrate for a long time; our senses tire quickly and we need, after moments of intense stimulation, periods of rest. Chagall understands this visual secret better than most painters; he draws our interest into a corner where minute details hold it, and when we tire of that, we rest, floating in a space of color, until the eye lands on a new small island of quivering life" (Alexander Liberman, "The Artist in His Studio," 1958, reprinted in Jacob Baal-Teshuva, Chagall: A Retrospective, New York, 1995, p. 337).