Marc Chagall

Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York (acquired from the artist)

Private Collection

Irving Galleries, Palm Beach

Acquired from the above in 1999

Paris, Musée du Louvre, Pavillon de Flores, Marc Chagall, Peintures recentes, 1967-1977, 1977-78, no. 58, illustrated in color in the catalogue

Florence, Palazzo Pitti, Marc Chagall à Palazzo Pitti, 1978, no. 57, illustrated in color in the catalogue

New York, Pierre Matisse Gallery, Marc Chagall, Paintings 1975-78, 1979, no. 10

Marc Chagall & Charles Sorlier, ed., Chagall by Chagall, Paris & New York, 1979, illustrated in color p. 115

Shearer West, Chagall, New York, 1990, illustrated in color p. 1 and illustrated in color on the cover

Excellent condition. Original canvas and under UV no inpainting. Paint layer is sound and the colors are a bit more lively in person than the catalogue illustration suggests.
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.

Paris was the city where Chagall spent his formative years as an artist and the place to which he returned after his years in exile in New York during the war.  Russian by origin, Chagall considered France his home during the last decades of his life, and he credited its capital as the birthplace the imaginative, whimsical style that defined his career.  "In Paris, it seemed to me that there was everything to discover, above all the art of craftsmanship," he recalled (M. Chagall & C. Sorlier, ed., Chagall by Chagall, New York, 1979, p. 92).  

 

Chagall's division of the canvas into separate compartments recalls the artist's work with stained glass and also acts as a framing devise for each character within this composition: "For me," Chagall once explained, "a painting is a surface covered with representations of things (objects, animals, human forms), within a certain framework in which logic and illustration have no importance.  There may exist a mysterious fourth or fifth dimension -- perhaps not only of the eye -- that intuitively gives rise to a balance of plastic and psychical contrasts, piercing the eye of the spectator by new and unusual conceptions" (ibid., p. 53).