Marc Chagall

Svensk-Franska Konstgalleriet, Stockholm (acquired from the artist in 1939)
Private Collection, Sweden (acquired from the above)
Perls Galleries, New York (acquired by 1954)
Sale: Christie's, London, 2nd December 1975, lot 80
Private Collection, Germany (sold: Sotheby's, London, 24th June 1996, lot 66)
Private Collection, Spain (purchased at the above sale. Sold: Christie's, New York, 22nd June 2004, lot 40)
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

Stockholm, Liljevalchs Konsthall, Fran Cézanne till Picasso, 1954, no. 78
Copenhagen, Charlottenbourg, Chagall-Kokoschka Udstillingen, 1960

The canvas is unlined. Apart from a small spot of retouching to the upper left framing edge, visible under ultra-violet light, this work is in very good condition. Colours: Overall fairly accurate in the printed catalogue illustration, although the blues are stronger in the original.
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Chagall's spectacular canvases of the 1930s are known for their free-association of symbolic images and engaging depictions of fantastic spectacles. Specific narratives are rare in these pictures, and scenes of flowers and lovers simply served as indicators of happy times (fig. 1). In Noce et musique, Chagall draws from the cast of characters and motifs that appear frequently in his paintings: the floating lovers, the luxuriant bouquet of flowers and the violinist angel. 

Since the early days of his career, musicians were among Chagall's favourite subjects. In the present work he returned to one of his preferred themes, the violinist, a figure that in his mind belonged to the world of circus and street entertainment, and was a strong symbol of Russian rural life. The floating lovers hovering on the right of the picture plane are a reference to the love of Chagall's youth, Bella (fig. 2). Love and marriage were a recurring theme in his painting. His first great love Bella Rosenfeld was also from the artist's native Vitebsk, and remained a powerful representation of his homeland. These elements are plotted somewhat haphazardly on the canvas, creating a dreamlike atmosphere. But unlike Dalí or Magritte whose Surrealist compositions exploited the fantastical and often shocking elements of dreams, Chagall acknowledges the intensely private and personal characteristic of the dream in a way that is universally recognisable.

Although the present work was painted at the height of the Surrealist movement circa 1939, Chagall himself was never a member of the avant-garde group. He prided himself on his independence and individualistic thinking, and continued his legacy as a painter of dreams until his death in 1985. Chagall often described himself as an 'unconscious-conscious painter', meaning that he was acutely aware of the message of his art and the methods he needed to utilise in order to achieve that message. In essence, what might seem like naïvité in his paintings is meticulously calculated to recreate the effect of mysticism. And in this, as in all his pictures, his choice of iconography, his perspectival distortion and his use of seductive colouration allow him to invest his paintings with an unmistakable quality.

The artist himself once expressed how his pictures should be regarded:  '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 colours.  On this point, as on others, I prefer to keep silent and let people think what they like' (quoted in Charles Sorlier (ed.), Chagall by Chagall, New York, 1979, p. 120). This artistic freedom of interpretation reflects Chagall's confidence in his style and technique and his deeply subjective approach to painting. With its fanciful, dream-like composition, Noce et musique becomes an expression of the artist's internal creative universe.


FIG. 1, Marc Chagall, Bouquet aux amoureux volants, 1934-47, oil on canvas, Tate Gallery, London

Fig. 2, Marc Chagall and Bella Rosenfeld, 1910