MARC CHAGALL

Estate of the artist

Michelle Rosenfeld Gallery, New York

Acquired from the above in 1996

The painting is in excellent condition. Original canvas. Under ultra-violet light there is no evidence of inpainting.
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Many artists in the 20^th century were inspired by the brilliant light of the South of France, and Chagall, like Matisse and Bonnard, chose to move his studio there during the last decade of his life.  However, Chagall was not a plein-air painter and did not revel in depicting the sun-dappled landscape of the southern French countryside.  He preferred to paint more from memory and imagination than from the scenes that existed outside the window of his studio.  In this picture from 1980, he presents some of the most popular motifs of the later years of his career:  the flowering hillsides of Vence, the pair of lovers and colorful bouquets bursting out of their vases.  With regard to his compositions Chagall once wrote, "If someone sees in my art only the search for pleasure, he's free to do so.  Free also to consider how another reality is being involuntarily transformed into symbol, the illogical and psychical construction of forms and colors.  On this point, as on others, I prefer to keep silent and let people think what they like" (Marc Chagall, quoted in Charles Sorlier, ed., Chagall by Chagall, New York, 1979, p. 120).