Marc Chagall

Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York (acquired from the artist in 1943)

Mrs. Gilbert W. Chapman (formerly known as Mrs. Charles B. Goodspeed; acquired from the above in 1945)

Acquired from the above in 1952

New York, Pierre Matisse Gallery, Chagall: Paintings-Gouaches, 1943, no. 6 

New York, The Museum of Modern Art; Art Institute of Chicago, Marc Chagall, 1946-47, no. 53

Paris, Musée National d’Art Moderne, Exposition Marc Chagall: Peintures 1908-1947, 1947, no. 47

New York, Pierre Matisse Gallery, Chagall, 1947

Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, Chagall, 1947, no. 45

New York, Riverside Museum, Best of Art, 1947-48

London, Tate Gallery, Marc Chagall, 1948, no. 53

Chicago, Arts Club, Marc Chagall, 1965

Paris, Grand Palais, Hommage à Marc Chagall, 1969-70, no. 91

Saint-Paul, Fondation Maeght, Marc Chagall: Rétrospective de l’oeuvre peint, 1984, no. 45

Basel, Galerie Beyeler, Marc Chagall, 1984-85, no. 53

Tokyo, Museum of Fine Arts of Bunkamura; Kasama, Nichido Museum; Nagoya City Art Museum, Chagall, 1989-90, no. 91

Lionello Venturi, Marc Chagall, New York, 1945, illustrated p. 46 

“Notable Works of Art Now on the Market,” Art News, New York, April 1945, illustrated p. 40

Art News, New York, May 1946, illustrated on the front cover

“Chagall, He Paints a World of Fantasy,” Life, New York, May 1947, illustrated p. 57

Judith Kaye Reed, “Critic Genauer Climbs Out on That Limb,” Art Digest,  New York, February 1948, illustrated p. 12

Emily Genauer, Best of Art, Garden City, 1948, no. 13, illustrated p. 43

Raissa Maritain, Chagall ou l’Orage Enchanté, Geneva and Paris, 1948, illustrated p. 152

“The Treasury of the Circus,” Art News Annual, New York, 1950, illustrated p. 35

Charles Estienne, Chagall, Paris, 1951, illustrated p. 65

Lionello Venturi, Chagall: The Taste of Our Time, Geneva, 1956, illustrated p. 89

Walter Erben, Marc Chagall, New York and Washington, 1957, no. 46

Jean Grenier, “Marc Chagall,” L’Oeil, Paris, April 1959, no. 52, illustrated p. 24

Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 1961, illustrated p. 75

Franz Meyer, Marc Chagall, London, 1964, illustrated p. 455

Fritz Reust, ed., Le temps dans l’oeuvre de Marc Chagall, Le Locle, 1967, pp. 7 and 27

Yvon Taillandier, “Pourquoi tant d’horloges et de poissons volants?” XXe Siècle, Paris, June 1970, no. 34, illustrated p. 35

Tadao Takemoto, Chagall, Tokyo, 1970, no. 45, illustrated p. 130

Mario Bucci, Marc Chagall, Florence, 1970, illustrated p.37

Werner Haftmann, Marc Chagall, New York, 1973, no. 30, illustrated p. 125

NY Magazine, New York, May 6, 1974

André Pieyre de Mandiargues, Chagall, Paris, 1974, illustrated p. 73

A. James Speyer and Courtney Graham Donnell, Twentieth Century European Paintings, Chicago, 1980, no. 1D4

Robert Storr, “For Sale: The Elizabeth Goodspeed Chapman Collection,” The Connoisseur, February, 1981, no. 828

François Le Targat, Marc Chagall, New York, 1985, no. 71

Franz Meyer, Marc Chagall, Paris, 1995, no. A184

Jacob Baal-Teshuva, Chagall: A Retrospective, Cologne, 1995, illustrated p. 189

Daniel Marchesseau, Chagall, Ivre d’Images, Paris, 1995, illustrated p. 92

Gill Polonsky, Chagall, London, 1998, illustrated p. 101

Noted for his imaginative and revolutionary employment of color and folkloric imagery, Chagall’s was a singular artistic voice throughout the 20^th century. The present composition, Le Jongleur, provides an iconic presentation of his most prominent themes and rich use of color. While aware of the dominant artistic movements throughout the first half of the twentieth century, Chagall was able to maintain a unique style and singular expressiveness. Elements of Impressionism, Cubism, Surrealism, and even Orphism can be identified throughout his oeuvre – though it would be implausible to confine his artistic expression within any of these categories.  

Chagall was, however, strongly aligned with the School of Paris in the decades preceding that in which he painted Le Jongleur. With a studio in La Ruche, Chagall was an active member in a thriving artists’ colony which included Soutine, Léger, and Modigliani. Inspired though not overshadowed by his contemporaries, Chagall cultivated artistic themes in these active years in Paris, themes he would refer to repeatedly.

After spending most of his life between Paris and his hometown of Vitebsk, Russia, Chagall moved to New York in 1941 (see fig. 1). Simultaneous with his arrival in America, Russia fell victim to Nazi invasion – an event that would haunt and trouble Chagall. It was during these first years in New York that Chagall painted Le Jongleur. He drew on a rich artistic experience as a means to express his very personal reaction to the surrounding environment and his new life in New York.

In the foreground of the painting is a human figure with the head of a rooster and the wings of an angel. As Werner Haftmann describes it, “The figure is woman, man, animal, demon, and angel all at the same time, comprising all manifestations of humanity” (Werner Haftmann, Chagall, New York, 1973, p.124). In reference to the rooster, a theme that Chagall referred to often during this decade (see fig. 2), Lionello Venturi writes, “This is no ordinary acrobat; it is rather an expression of the bestiality slumbering in the human soul. In these … wartime paintings, the rooster, symbol of aggressivity, plays an important part” (Lionello Venturi, Chagall: The Taste of Our Time, Geneva, 1956, p. 91).

Evident in the background of Le Jongleur is Chagall’s fascination with the circus that dates back to his childhood in Vitebsk and his years in Paris when he frequently attended the circus with Ambroise Vollard. As Venturi explains, “The importance of the circus motif in modern French literature and painting is well known; in painting it suffices to recall names of Seurat and Rouault. As always, Chagall’s images of circus people … are at once burlesque and tender. Their perspective of sentiment, their fantastic forms, suggest that the painter is amusing himself in a freer mood than usual; and the result is eloquent of the unmistakable purity flowing from Chagall’s heart. These circus scenes are mature realizations of earlier dreams” (Lionello Venturi, Marc Chagall, New York, 1945, p. 39).

The circus theme recurs often in Chagall’s artistic career (see fig. 3). In the present piece, Chagall places village imagery in the center of the circus arena. This is an allusion to his rural hometown of Vitebsk, the invasion of which still haunted him. Nevertheless, the artist did not seek to weigh down these compositions with heavy symbolic significance. Rather, they are the expression of a fantastical and dreamlike imagination. At a time when the world was in turmoil during the Second World War, Chagall found solace in his canvases and in his wife Bella, who appears in many of the paintings of this period (see fig. 4). As Venturi writes, “His is the gesture of the lost child, gifted with a fertile imagination but powerless to arrest the march of events in an increasingly alien world. To war, massacre and martyrdom his answer is his painting … Tenderness and hope – all the dearer for being unrealizable – are his weapons against the powers of evil. By losing himself and taking refuge in a world of myth and poetry, he at the same time finds himself” (Lionello Venturi, Chagall: The Taste of Our Time, Geneva, 1956, p. 83).

FIGURE 1  The artist in his studio in New York, 1941-1942 

FIGURE 2  Marc Chagall, Ecoutant au Coq, 1944, oil on canvas, Collection of A. A. Juviler, New York              

FIGURE 3  Marc Chagall, Le Jongleur de Paris, 1969, oil on canvas, sold: Sotheby’s, New York, May 3, 2005, lot 63  

FIGURE 4  Marc Chagall, Between Darkness and Light, 1943, oil on canvas, Private Collection