Marc Chagall

Private Collection, USA

In very good condition. The canvas is unlined. Under UV: a tiny pindot of loss at center of the compositon shows a speck of inpainting. Otherwise fine.
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In his artistic maturity, Chagall painted shifting, dream-like compositions of imagery drawn from a vocabulary of personal and universal motifs. The fusion of love and flowers was a constant theme throughout Chagall's life. Franz Meyer commented: "Many are simple still lifes with a bunch of red roses and white lilacs; in others, pairs of lovers and air-borne fiddlers gambol through space. The atmosphere encompasses and pervades the flowers like a magically light, airy fluid, vibrant with their vitality" (Franz Meyer, Marc Chagall, Life and Work, New York, 1961, p. 369).

Throughout his career, Marc Chagall consistently turned to flower painting not as rigorous studies in realism, but rather as expressive evocations of fantasy in their conflation of still-life, narrative motifs, and landscape.  Like Henri Matisse, Chagall resided in Saint-Paul-de Vence from 1950-1973 and sought to capture the town's splendor and luminosity.  According to Chagall's biographer Franz Meyer, "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 rooster often features as part of Chagall's exploration of intertwined systems of life in the world. In the present work, the rooster symbolizes the rural existence of Chagall's past and adds a unique element of spirituality to the work. Franz Mayer states, "The fowlyard, too, has its place in Chagall's recollections of his childhood. That is why poultry are always a part of the Russian scenes painted during his first Paris period. In the twenties impressions of French farmyards and work on the Fables lend the motif a new topicality...For thousands of years it has played a part in religious rites as the embodiment of the forces of the sun and fire.  This symbolic meaning still lingers on in Chagall's works..." (Franz Mayer, Marc Chagall, New York, 1963, p. 380).