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Lot Essay
This work is sold with a photo-certificate from the Comité Marc Chagall.
'I have always looked upon clowns, acrobats and actors as beings with a tragic humanity' (Chagall quoted in F. Meyer, Marc Chagall Life and Work, New York, p. 222) claimed Chagall, thereby emphasizing on his fascination for the characters who perform in circuses or in the theatre, such as those depicted in the present lot. Chagall's first encounters with the circus go back to his childhood and his Hassidic roots, when acrobats and musicians performed for religious ceremonies in the streets of Vitebsk, however it was his first stay in France from 1910 to 1914 which really opened Chagall's eyes to the bubbling Parisian stage world. He followed Degas, Manet, Toulouse-Lautrec and others in their passion for this exciting dramatic realm, where the natural seems to confront the impossible, leading Chagall to successfully stage his own circus with its unique actors throughout his works.
Throughout his oeuvre, Chagall sought to create his own dream-like world of fantasy, where he challenged the laws of gravity and where anything could happen. As first seen in the extraordinary series of circus gouaches for the Cirque Vollard of 1927, commissioned by Ambroise Vollard, the circus stage presented Chagall with the perfect ground for his characters to perform the most extraordinary acts, such as acrobats effortlessly suspended in the air, and the depiction of animals blurring the boundaries between the animal and human worlds.
'I have always looked upon clowns, acrobats and actors as beings with a tragic humanity' (Chagall quoted in F. Meyer, Marc Chagall Life and Work, New York, p. 222) claimed Chagall, thereby emphasizing on his fascination for the characters who perform in circuses or in the theatre, such as those depicted in the present lot. Chagall's first encounters with the circus go back to his childhood and his Hassidic roots, when acrobats and musicians performed for religious ceremonies in the streets of Vitebsk, however it was his first stay in France from 1910 to 1914 which really opened Chagall's eyes to the bubbling Parisian stage world. He followed Degas, Manet, Toulouse-Lautrec and others in their passion for this exciting dramatic realm, where the natural seems to confront the impossible, leading Chagall to successfully stage his own circus with its unique actors throughout his works.
Throughout his oeuvre, Chagall sought to create his own dream-like world of fantasy, where he challenged the laws of gravity and where anything could happen. As first seen in the extraordinary series of circus gouaches for the Cirque Vollard of 1927, commissioned by Ambroise Vollard, the circus stage presented Chagall with the perfect ground for his characters to perform the most extraordinary acts, such as acrobats effortlessly suspended in the air, and the depiction of animals blurring the boundaries between the animal and human worlds.