- 33
Marc Chagall
Description
- Marc Chagall
- Couple russe en buste
- signed Marc Chagall (lower left)
- watercolour on paper
- 33.5 by 25.5cm.
- 13 1/4 by 10in.
Provenance
Private Collection, Paris (acquired from the above in the 1960s)
Condition
"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. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
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."
Catalogue Note
In Couple Russe en buste this luminous colouring is combined with an iconography that directly recalls Russia. Susan Compton notes that, ‘As the 1920s drew to a close a new mood becomes apparent in Chagall’s work… reflecting his continuing contacts with Russia’ (S. Compton, Chagall (exhibition catalogue), Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1985, p. 202). Clothed in the distinctive uniform of the Russian peasantry, the two figures fill the sheet and the immediacy of their presence reflects the strength of feeling Chagall retained for his homeland. At the same time, his use of colour is given new impetus through the freer medium of gouache, infusing the composition with a glowing, vibrant red.
The importance of both cultures to his artistic development was something the artist always emphasised, explaining in an interview in 1947, ‘As a native of Vitebsk I was still as close to Russia and to the soil as the day I left. But as an artist I felt myself just as much a stranger to the official, aesthetic ideology of the new government as I had been to the provincial art ideals of the Russia I left in 1910. At that time I decided I needed Paris. The root-soil of my art was Vitebsk, but like a tree, my art needed Paris like water, otherwise it would wither and die’ (quoted in J. J. Sweeney, ‘An Interview with Marc Chagall’, in J. Baal-Teshuva (ed.), Chagall: A Retrospective, New York, 1995, p. 278).