Marc Chagall

Estate of the Artist
Galerie Enrico Navarra, Paris
Sale: Christie's, London, 9th December 1999, lot 549
Private Collection, California (purchased at the above sale)
Private Collection, United States (acquired from the above in 2003; sale: Christie's, New York, 5th May 2011, lot 140)
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

Galerie Enrico Navarra, XIéme Biennale de Monte Carlo, Chagall et les fleurs, 1995, n.n., illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Executed on fibrous cream paper, not laid down and taped to the mount intermittently at all four edges. The adhesive tape at the reverse of the lower right corner has become loose and the edge can be lifter. All four edges are slightly unevenly cut. The sheet is very gently undulating due to the application of medium. This work is in overall very good condition.
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Imbued with a whimsical sense of romantic possibility and glowing with the vivid colours and sensual delights of the South of France, Sirène au pin stands as the quintessential Marc Chagall painting. Executed in 1960, the vivid blue sapphire pigment which dominates the background sets the ethereal stage as a shimmering mermaid, clasping a vibrant bouquet of flowers, floats high above a glittering aerial view of the Côte d'Azur. Chagall believed strongly in the affinity between painting and dreams, and these two themes are exquisitely reflected within the present work, which superbly combines Chagall’s love of his Mediterranean home with the fantastical iconography of his internal universe.

In 1950, Chagall settled permanently in the South of France following several years of exile in New York, and the vibrant Mediterranean light had an immediate and transformative effect on his art. In reference to Chagall’s output from this period, Walter Erben notes that: ‘The Southern French landscape had astonished Chagall with its wealth of colours and its lyrical atmosphere had captivated him with the beauty of its flowers and foliage. These impressions found their way into his paintings of that period, refined their peinture and lent them a hitherto unknown radiance’ (Walter Erben, Marc Chagall, London, 1957, p. 134).When the French Tourist Office commissioned Marc Chagall to design a poster to promote Nice and the Côte d'Azur in 1962, Chagall's thoughts turned immediately to the earlier Sirène au pin for inspiration. The present work thus became the starting point for a related series of gouaches and the celebrated 1967 portfolio of prints Nice et la Côte d’Azur.