Marc Chagall

Sale: Sotheby's, New York, 4th May 2005, lot 224
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

Osaka, Takashimaya Art Gallery; Tokyo, Takashimaya Art Gallery (& travelling in Japan) Marc Chagall, 2012, no. 9, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Oil on paper laid down on canvas. There is a layer of varnish preventing the UV light from fully penetrating however there does not appear to be any evidence of retouching visible under UV light. The colours are fresh and vibrant and this work is in overall very good condition.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Le coq, peintre sur les toits is a fantastical image that combines two iconic themes that define Chagall’s creative output: the relationship between man and animal and the artist’s self-portrait. The theme of animals was first touched upon in Chagall’s art of the 1920s, and gradually became a dominant force within his visual vocabulary where motifs of roosters, hens and goats became signature elements of his œuvre. The present composition is dominated by a giant green rooster; while the body represents a bird, the upper segment suggests the conjoining of an animal and a man, suggesting the profile of the artist in the process of painting a woman. The human’s upper body, dressed in a dapper suit, is superimposed onto the rooster, yet the artist’s arm is segmented from the body. Such whimsical amalgamation is further heightened by the fact that the subject appears to be floating over the roofs of a village in the distance. The foreground of the painting is highlighted by the dazzling green of the rooster, which contrasts starkly against the somber tones of brown, grey and black that define the background. Such juxtaposition of disparate figures and incongruous colours are crucial elements in all of Chagall’s works, which are expressions of the artist's internal universe rather than an objective projection of the outside world. This work is exemplary of Chagall's beliefs 'the essential functions of a painting were symbolic, not formal… the work of art was more than anything else a means to record his sensations, his memories, his moods, his feelings about life' (Andrew Kagan, Marc Chagall, New York, 1989, p. 7).

For Marc Chagall, the theme of love and romance is an omnipresent force that drove his artistic endeavours throughout his life. While the usual representation of a couple is not present in Le coq, peintre sur les toits, the theme of love is nonetheless immediately clear: besides depicting himself as a rooster-artist at work, Chagall has chosen to incorporate a woman into the canvas within the canvas. While self-portraiture as a genre had been popular since the early Renaissance, for Chagall this particular genre was a means with which to probe his identity as a lover and an artist. One can easily view the present work as a heartfelt commemoration of the artist’s own beloved wife. Chagall once said, 'Love is the strongest possible illumination. Love is poetry, too… We are love, we are made of love, How can we live otherwise?' (Alexander Liberman, The Artist in His Studio, New York, 1988, p. 167).