.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The Comité Marc Chagall has confirmed the authenticity of this painting.
The central characters in many of Chagall's paintings are lovers or newlyweds, people caught up in the early excitement of love who completely surrender themselves one another. For Chagall and his first wife Bella, who were married in 1915 and lived together for almost three decades, this experience of love took on a shared intensity that appeared to never falter or fade. Le couple nu, painted while Bella was still alive, is a celebration of this passion. The work is a pictorial representation of Chagall's belief in the idea of love, which for him was both motivation and motif.
The nude subjects symbolize the surrender that was central to Chagall's conception of love. The two figures are wrapped in a tender embrace. The woman nearly obscures the body of her partner and the couple appears almost as one unified figure. The expressive colors in the background work with the animated brushstrokes to enhance the passion of the scene. The colors seem to emanate from the couple themselves. The creamy white complexion of their skin is accented by colorful brushstrokes of red, blue, green, and yellow that culminate in the vibrantly rendered background. Chagall stabilizes the composition with a small bouquet of flowers placed to the right of the couple. This work combines two distinct elements in Chagall's personal iconography that came to encapsulate his idea of romantic love: the amorous couple and the bouquet of flowers.
The central characters in many of Chagall's paintings are lovers or newlyweds, people caught up in the early excitement of love who completely surrender themselves one another. For Chagall and his first wife Bella, who were married in 1915 and lived together for almost three decades, this experience of love took on a shared intensity that appeared to never falter or fade. Le couple nu, painted while Bella was still alive, is a celebration of this passion. The work is a pictorial representation of Chagall's belief in the idea of love, which for him was both motivation and motif.
The nude subjects symbolize the surrender that was central to Chagall's conception of love. The two figures are wrapped in a tender embrace. The woman nearly obscures the body of her partner and the couple appears almost as one unified figure. The expressive colors in the background work with the animated brushstrokes to enhance the passion of the scene. The colors seem to emanate from the couple themselves. The creamy white complexion of their skin is accented by colorful brushstrokes of red, blue, green, and yellow that culminate in the vibrantly rendered background. Chagall stabilizes the composition with a small bouquet of flowers placed to the right of the couple. This work combines two distinct elements in Chagall's personal iconography that came to encapsulate his idea of romantic love: the amorous couple and the bouquet of flowers.