Lot 154
  • 154

Marc Chagall

Estimate
600,000 - 800,000 USD
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Description

  • Marc Chagall
  • Mariés à l'ange rouge
  • Signed Chagall and dated 1932 (lower left)
  • Oil on canvas
  • 18 1/4 by 10 1/2 in.
  • 46.4 by 26.6 cm

Provenance

Galerie Moderne, Paris
James Vigeveno Galleries, Los Angeles
Private Collection, Chicago (acquired from the above 1955)
Private Collection, United States (and sold by the estate: Christie's, New York, November 8, 1995, lot 217)
Private Collection, Europe (and sold: Christie's, New York, November 4, 2010, lot 453)
Acquired at the above sale 

Exhibited

Kunsthalle Basel, Marc Chagall, 1933, no. 102
Chicago, Wally Findlay Galleries, Chagall, Utrillo, Vlaminck, Important Loan Exhibition to Benefit the Scholarship Fund, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1961, no. 4

Condition

The work is in very good condition. The canvas has not been lined. The surface is nicely textured and the colors are bright and fresh. Very minor frame abrasion is visible to the extreme corners. A few very faint lines of craquelure are visible to the bottom left corner. Under UV light: certain original pigments fluoresce and three additional pindots fluoresce darkly to the upper left of the moon -- these may be the original ground of the canvas. Otherwise fine and well preserved.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Catalogue Note

Dating to 1932, Mariés à l'ange rouge is an exquisite example of several of Chagall’s most iconic themes, including the fusion of love, flowers and music, all rendered together at an early date in his career. Indeed, the young lovers who are the focal point of this composition would go on to become an archetype repeated throughout his entire oeuvre. It has been said that the subject of marriage was particularly inspiring for Chagall because it symbolized the mystical union of two souls. He often rendered his married figures floating weightlessly in profound fields of blue, such as those that saturate the surface of the present work.

It was love at first sight for Chagall when in 1909 he met Bella Rosenfeld, the daughter of a Vitebsk merchant. Describing meeting her for the first time, Chagall wrote: “Her silence is mine, her eyes mine. It is as if she knows everything about my childhood, my present, my future, as if she can see right through me; as if she has always watched over me, somewhere next to me, though I saw her for the very first time. I knew this is she, my wife. Her pale colouring, her eyes. How big and round and black they are! They are my eyes, my soul…” (quoted in Jakie Wullschlager, Chagall: A Biography, New York, 2008, p. 89).

They married in 1915 and lived together for almost three decades; she was very much his muse who would continue to appear in his work for the rest of his life. “Always present—watching, advising, refining—[Bella] supplied echo and answers to artistic questions, formed contacts, removed obstacles. She was and still is the archetype of the loved one, the bride who leans toward her young groom in so many pictures, the tender girl who dreams in her lover’s arms” (Franz Meyer, Marc Chagall, Life and Work, New York, 1963, pp. 465-66).