Marc Chagall

Galerie Maeght, Paris
Sale: Christie’s, New York, 19th May 1978, lot 61
Purchased from the above sale by the family of the present owners

The board is stable and there do not appear to be any signs of retouching visible under UV light. There is some slight wear to the canvas in places along the extreme edges, associated with frame rubbing. There is some lovely impasto to the flowers and this work is in overall very good 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."

Marc Chagall consistently turned to flowers as a subject for his painting throughout his career, not as rigorous studies in realism, but rather as expressive evocations of fantasy in their conflation of still-life, narrative motifs, and landscape. Vase bleu dans l'atelier was painted in 1973, at a time when Chagall was enjoying much international success and recognition and was living in the hill top village of Saint-Paul-de Vence with his wife Vava. He sought to capture the splendour and luminosity of this Côte d'Azur town by experimenting with bold colours and fluid, unstructured compositions.

Chagall was greatly inspired by the beauty that he found in the surroundings of the South of France and his happy domestic life. Within the present work, the flowers of the bouquet are magnificently oversized compared with the figures, which imbues the scene with a sense of dreamlike wonder. The mysterious and magical blue background is quintessential Chagall and is beautifully punctuated by the white crescent moon visible to through the studio window. 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 colour 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).