Marc Chagall

Commissioned and acquired directly from the artist

Paris, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Hommage à Marc Chagall, 1969-70, no. 171, illustrated in the catalogue (with incorrect measurements)
Saint-Paul-de-Vence, Fondation Maeght, Marc Chagall. Rétrospective de l'œuvre peint, 1984, no. 60, illustrated in colour in the catalogue (with incorrect measurements)
London, Royal Academy of Arts & Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Chagall, 1985, no. 103, illustrated in colour in the catalogue (with incorrect measurements)
Munich, Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Marc Chagall, 1991, no. 89, illustrated in colour in the catalogue (with incorrect measurements)

François Le Targat, Marc Chagall, New York, 1985, no. 96, illustrated in colour (with incorrect measurements)
Werner Haftmann, Marc Chagall, New York, 1998, pl. 39, illustrated in colour p. 143 (titled Le Roi David and with incorrect measurements)

The canvas is unlined and there is no evidence of retouching under ultra-violet light. This work is in excellent original condition. Colours: Overall fairly accurate in the printed catalogue illustration, atlhough brighter and more luminous in the original.
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In this monumental oil, painted as a companion-piece to Bethsabée (lot 12), Chagall combined the Biblical figure of King David – a musician and author of many of the Psalms –  with his own, personal iconography. Accompanied by a bride and groom, the image of David appears between two towns that were very close to the artist's heart – his native Vitebsk above, and Saint-Paul-de-Vence below him. Merging some of the key elements that dominated Chagall's private life, David is a vivid phantasmagorical image and a quintessential example of the fantastic, dream-like quality of his art.

 

Werner Haftmann wrote about Chagall's Biblical paintings, including the present work: 'They do not adhere very closely to the biblical text and often play quite freely with the biblical figures. The most astonishing example of this is offered by the picture here, King David. The figure of David was a perfect subject for Chagall's roving fantasy. Not only was he a brilliant hero, killer of lions, and conqueror of Goliath, but also a great lover who, in his love for Bathsheba – who bore him the king of all kings, Solomon – did not stop short of crime. He was also a great singer and dancer, who eased the heartache of King Saul with his music, sang the poignant lamentation for his friend Jonathan slain by the Philistines, and entered Jerusalem singing and dancing before the Ark of the Covenant.'

 

Describing the present composition, Haftmann continues: 'This King David now appears like a sleepwalking giant, advancing in rhythmic dance steps and playing the harp – a mythical figure in an extraordinary setting in which dream and reality intermingle. Below, in the violet twilight before a side scene of Vence, advances a jubilant, gesticulating procession of godly Jews. To the right, however, floats a bridal pair such as had appeared in Chagallian imagery since 1947 as an emblem of yearning love – strangely elongated in a Mannerist fashion reminiscent of El Greco; also the coloring and buildup recall El Greco or Tintoretto. In the background, before a coulisse of Vitebsk outlined against a stormy sky lit by a golden moon, advances a bridal procession under a red canopy. The two festive processions – one celebrating divine love, the other nuptial love, in which, according to ancient Jewish teaching, the love of God is present – meet in a unity of space and time possible only in the artificial dimension of painting. It seems perfectly natural for such unusual scenes to call forth King David, that he may lead the procession before the Ark of the Covenant, singing and dancing as in days of old. The biblical figure has been resurrected on a legendary level into the circle of the living' (W. Haftmann, op. cit., p. 142).

 

Fig. 1, Dining room with the present work and other works by Marc Chagall, commissioned directly from the artist