Marc Chagall

Collection of the artist
Saidenberg Galleries, New York
Mrs. Maurice E. Culberg, Chicago
James Vigeveno Galleries, Westwood Hills, California
Private Collection (acquired circa 1950 and thence by descent to the present owner)

Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles, n.d.
St. Louis, Missouri, The Jewish Federation of St. Louis, Marc Chagall, Selected Works 1926-1980, 1986-87, no. 77

Franz Meyer, Marc Chagall, Life and Work, New York, 1963, no. 662, illustrated n.p.
Raïssa Maritain, Chagall ou l'orage enchanté, Geneva, 1965, illustrated p. 92

Executed on cream wove paper laid down on card. Work appears to have been laid down not long after its execution. There is some minor paint shrinkage in the lower portion of the female figure's dress. There is some residue and minor associated loss to the extreme top edge from a prior matting as well as a nailhead size loss to the left of the female figure's lower back. Colors are bright and fresh and work is in very good original condition.
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The years 1938-39 marked an important turning point in Chagall's art. The works he produced during this time define the closing of one period in the artist's oeuvre and the opening of another. In this group of works, all executed in Paris just before the outbreak of World War II, the structure of the compositions reflects a greater density and unity than in any other pictures Chagall had produced since his return to Paris in 1923. In the present work, this is evident both in the composition as a whole and in the treatment of specific details, such as the houses and the relation between figure and ground. The color employed by the artist attains greater autonomy and takes the lead more decisively in the structure of the picture space. Sur le banc is a new elegiac version of Chagall's beloved theme of lovers set against a nostalgic village scene with iconoic symbology.
Sur le banc illustrates the new iconographic motifs that Chagall developed after his arrival in France, and demonstrates the intermingling of cultures that was the catalyst for a new means of expression. This village scene, with its humble structures, evokes the Russian world, particularly Vitebsk, the artist's native home. In depicting the far-off reality of this hamlet, Chagall, in exile, expresses a kind of nostalgia for his country of origin and attempts to relay the anxiety associated with losing ones' roots. As Chagall himself said, "The earth that nourished the roots of my art was Vitebsk, but my art needed Paris as a tree needs water" (Marc Chagall, Les années russes, 1907-1922, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, 1995, p. 12).