Marc Chagall

Estate of the artist
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Chagall’s love of colour and personal imagery is apparent in this oil from the early 1950’s. In 1949 Chagall went back to France, where he developed an interest in ceramics, sculpture and stained glass. The present work was painted during his stay at Vence and close to the time of his second marriage to Vava. The uncertainty of the war years had lifted and Chagall started a new and prolific period in his work. ‘Chagall’s new sojourn in the south exerted a decisive influence on his art. 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 colour dominates more and more with the passing of years’ (F. Meyer, Marc Chagall, Life and Work, New York, 1963, p. 519).

His numerous works represent characteristically vivid recollections of Russian-Jewish village scenes with a heady combination of folklore and fantasy. In La nuit verte the artist revisits familiar motifs from his earlier works, still infused with nostalgia for his homeland, however, the palette is now daring and bold and he has adapted according to the developments in art around him. We see a snowy landscape under the star angled sky, a darkened, crumpled sky hinting at the turbulent war years he had just left behind. The lovers shrink into a corner forming an islet of homely bliss in the pale moonlight, the bright green donkey rises out through the sky towards the green moon. The colouring and strange arrangement of figures evoke a fantastical scene. While this may relate to a folk tale, no specific narrative for the green donkey has been identified. Next to the donkey is another familiar Chagall motif – the flying pendulum clock, and below all these fantastical images the reality of village life in winter goes on. Chagall, as always draws on a rich artistic experience as a means to express his own very personal reaction to the surrounding environment.