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Lot Essay
The Comité Marc Chagall has confirmed the authenticity of this work.
Courbeille de fruits et bouquet dans la nuit plunges the viewer into the romantic, colour-saturated world of Marc Chagall. This picture is dated '1952-6', implying that it was executed at a crucial moment in Chagall's life. For it was in July that year that he would marry Valentina Brodsky, his second wife, whom he would nickname 'Vava'. This brought about a new domestic stability and tranquillity that was all the more welcome after his more turbulent relationship with Virginia McNeil. Looking at the flowers and the fruit in Courbeille de fruits et bouquet dans la nuit, it appears that this is a promise of the new marital life to come.
Chagall had met Vava earlier in 1952; she had owned a milliners in London but had been encouraged to help him as a form of housekeeper. Soon, their relationship had developed, in part because there was so much shared culture between them. They were both from Russian Jewish families, and therefore had language and habits in common. This provided a great deal of comfort for Chagall, and that comfort may be seen to be reflected in the cornucopia in Courbeille de fruits et bouquet dans la nuit.
That this scene is set at night adds to its romantic lyricism. At the same time, it also allows Chagall to bathe the backdrop in a lapis-like blue that serves to throw the incandescent colours of the fruit and flowers into bold relief. This is a colouristic tour de force. Meanwhile, in the background is a townscape that appears to show Chagall's recently-adopted home, Saint-Paul-de-Vence, with its iconic tower and church cresting it. Chagall had moved there only two years earlier, settling in a home called 'Les Collines', which would come to be his home for over a decade and a half, a period of remarkable stability for the artist, who had moved around a great deal during the previous decades, often finding himself in exile. Indeed, during the Second World War, he had even had to flee France, where he was already in exile from Russia, for the United States of America, only returning definitively in 1948. Looking at Courbeille de fruits et bouquet dans la nuit, it is clear that Chagall was celebrating his return to life in France, tapping into the romance and colour of the Mediterranean South.
Courbeille de fruits et bouquet dans la nuit plunges the viewer into the romantic, colour-saturated world of Marc Chagall. This picture is dated '1952-6', implying that it was executed at a crucial moment in Chagall's life. For it was in July that year that he would marry Valentina Brodsky, his second wife, whom he would nickname 'Vava'. This brought about a new domestic stability and tranquillity that was all the more welcome after his more turbulent relationship with Virginia McNeil. Looking at the flowers and the fruit in Courbeille de fruits et bouquet dans la nuit, it appears that this is a promise of the new marital life to come.
Chagall had met Vava earlier in 1952; she had owned a milliners in London but had been encouraged to help him as a form of housekeeper. Soon, their relationship had developed, in part because there was so much shared culture between them. They were both from Russian Jewish families, and therefore had language and habits in common. This provided a great deal of comfort for Chagall, and that comfort may be seen to be reflected in the cornucopia in Courbeille de fruits et bouquet dans la nuit.
That this scene is set at night adds to its romantic lyricism. At the same time, it also allows Chagall to bathe the backdrop in a lapis-like blue that serves to throw the incandescent colours of the fruit and flowers into bold relief. This is a colouristic tour de force. Meanwhile, in the background is a townscape that appears to show Chagall's recently-adopted home, Saint-Paul-de-Vence, with its iconic tower and church cresting it. Chagall had moved there only two years earlier, settling in a home called 'Les Collines', which would come to be his home for over a decade and a half, a period of remarkable stability for the artist, who had moved around a great deal during the previous decades, often finding himself in exile. Indeed, during the Second World War, he had even had to flee France, where he was already in exile from Russia, for the United States of America, only returning definitively in 1948. Looking at Courbeille de fruits et bouquet dans la nuit, it is clear that Chagall was celebrating his return to life in France, tapping into the romance and colour of the Mediterranean South.