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Lot Essay
The Comité Marc Chagall has confirmed the authenticity of this work.
'I thought that only love and uncalculating devotion towards others will lead to the greatest harmony in life and in art of which humanity has been dreaming so long. And this must, of course, be included in each utterance, in each brushstroke, and in each colour' (Chagall, quoted in Chagall: A Retrospective, ed. J. Baal-Teshuva, Westport, 1995, p. 208).
Ane bleu, executed circa 1978, is a rich and sumptuous work, brimming with many of Chagall's most favoured and iconic motifs. At the centre of this densely filled composition a bouquet of bright red roses emerges from a burst of green foliage. Beneath the roses, set against the vivid blue of the donkey of the title, floats an ethereal female nude. The prominence of the bride and the flowers, both key leitmotifs within the artist’s oeuvre, lends the painting a distinctively romantic air, perhaps alluding to the happiness, love and contentment that Chagall felt at this time, as he enjoyed an idyllic life in the South of France with his second wife, Vava.
Indeed, Ane bleu highlights the profound impact the Côte d’Azur had on the artist, and the manner in which the tranquil atmosphere and beautiful landscapes of the South of France came to influence his painting. He had first moved to the area in the early 1950s, settling in the historic walled town of Vence, and described his life there as ‘a bouquet of roses’ (Chagall, quoted in S. Alexander, Marc Chagall: A Biography, New York, 1978, p. 492). As Franz Meyer, Chagall’s biographer and son-in-law, explained: ‘The light, the vegetation, the rhythm of life, all contributed to the rise of a more relaxed, airy, sensuous style in which the magic of colour dominates…’ (F. Meyer, Marc Chagall: Life and Work, London, 1964, p. 519). In Ane bleu Chagall uses a luminous, effervescent blue throughout the composition, evoking the bright, azure light that filled the town, while the lush vitality of the foliage and roses highlights the sense of abundance and plenitude that radiated from the Provence landscape. Chagall most likely drew the inspiration for these blossoms straight from life, as bouquets of freshly cut flowers were brought daily to his studio during these years, filling the space with their vibrant colours and heady scent.
Chagall often used flowers as a symbol of romantic love in his paintings, incorporating the motif in his compositions in order to evoke the intense feelings of passion and love that absorbed him. The theme of flowers was one to which Chagall returned time and again throughout his career, though his pursuit of the subject became particularly fervent in the mid-1920s. As James Johnson Sweeney has noted, ‘It was in Toulon in 1924, Chagall recalls, that the charm of French flowers first struck him. He claims that he had not known bouquets of flowers in Russia...He said that when he painted a bouquet it was as if he was painting a landscape. It represented France to him. But the discovery was also a logical one in the light of the change taking place in his vision and pictorial interests. Flowers, especially mixed bouquets of tiny blossoms, offer a variety of delicate colour combinations and a fund of texture contrasts which were beginning to hold Chagall's attention more and more" (Marc Chagall, New York, 1946, p. 56).
In addition to the flowers, the other motifs that populate this dream-like composition contain a wealth of visual references and meanings. The reclining man at the bottom of the composition, for instance, appears in earlier paintings by Chagall, most notably in his celebrated Le poète allongé of 1915, now in the collection of the Tate Gallery, London, REF N05390. In that work, Chagall painted himself in the role of the poet and here it is as if he is identifying himself with the peasant who is portrayed as so intimately connected with nature and rural life. Rural life is also reflected in the burst of greenery throughout the composition, and in the many animals – the blue donkey of the title, the small rooster towards the lower left and the child holding a small yellow lamb towards the left. As the artist himself explained: 'The fact that I made use of cows, milkmaids, roosters and provincial Russian architecture as my source forms is because they are part of the environment from which I spring and which undoubtedly left the deepest impression on my visual memory of the experiences I have', (Chagall, quoted in B. Harshav, ed., Marc Chagall on Art and Culture, Stanford, 2003, p. 83).
Although Chagall insisted throughout his career that it was not his intention to create paintings which were symbolic in nature, the autobiographical lexicon inherent in his works is certainly hard to ignore. Ane bleu was painted at a time when Chagall had achieved happiness in his romantic life, and was enjoying professional success as well. In Ane bleu, this joyful exuberance—along with a wistful reminder of the artist's youth—is readily apparent.
'I thought that only love and uncalculating devotion towards others will lead to the greatest harmony in life and in art of which humanity has been dreaming so long. And this must, of course, be included in each utterance, in each brushstroke, and in each colour' (Chagall, quoted in Chagall: A Retrospective, ed. J. Baal-Teshuva, Westport, 1995, p. 208).
Ane bleu, executed circa 1978, is a rich and sumptuous work, brimming with many of Chagall's most favoured and iconic motifs. At the centre of this densely filled composition a bouquet of bright red roses emerges from a burst of green foliage. Beneath the roses, set against the vivid blue of the donkey of the title, floats an ethereal female nude. The prominence of the bride and the flowers, both key leitmotifs within the artist’s oeuvre, lends the painting a distinctively romantic air, perhaps alluding to the happiness, love and contentment that Chagall felt at this time, as he enjoyed an idyllic life in the South of France with his second wife, Vava.
Indeed, Ane bleu highlights the profound impact the Côte d’Azur had on the artist, and the manner in which the tranquil atmosphere and beautiful landscapes of the South of France came to influence his painting. He had first moved to the area in the early 1950s, settling in the historic walled town of Vence, and described his life there as ‘a bouquet of roses’ (Chagall, quoted in S. Alexander, Marc Chagall: A Biography, New York, 1978, p. 492). As Franz Meyer, Chagall’s biographer and son-in-law, explained: ‘The light, the vegetation, the rhythm of life, all contributed to the rise of a more relaxed, airy, sensuous style in which the magic of colour dominates…’ (F. Meyer, Marc Chagall: Life and Work, London, 1964, p. 519). In Ane bleu Chagall uses a luminous, effervescent blue throughout the composition, evoking the bright, azure light that filled the town, while the lush vitality of the foliage and roses highlights the sense of abundance and plenitude that radiated from the Provence landscape. Chagall most likely drew the inspiration for these blossoms straight from life, as bouquets of freshly cut flowers were brought daily to his studio during these years, filling the space with their vibrant colours and heady scent.
Chagall often used flowers as a symbol of romantic love in his paintings, incorporating the motif in his compositions in order to evoke the intense feelings of passion and love that absorbed him. The theme of flowers was one to which Chagall returned time and again throughout his career, though his pursuit of the subject became particularly fervent in the mid-1920s. As James Johnson Sweeney has noted, ‘It was in Toulon in 1924, Chagall recalls, that the charm of French flowers first struck him. He claims that he had not known bouquets of flowers in Russia...He said that when he painted a bouquet it was as if he was painting a landscape. It represented France to him. But the discovery was also a logical one in the light of the change taking place in his vision and pictorial interests. Flowers, especially mixed bouquets of tiny blossoms, offer a variety of delicate colour combinations and a fund of texture contrasts which were beginning to hold Chagall's attention more and more" (Marc Chagall, New York, 1946, p. 56).
In addition to the flowers, the other motifs that populate this dream-like composition contain a wealth of visual references and meanings. The reclining man at the bottom of the composition, for instance, appears in earlier paintings by Chagall, most notably in his celebrated Le poète allongé of 1915, now in the collection of the Tate Gallery, London, REF N05390. In that work, Chagall painted himself in the role of the poet and here it is as if he is identifying himself with the peasant who is portrayed as so intimately connected with nature and rural life. Rural life is also reflected in the burst of greenery throughout the composition, and in the many animals – the blue donkey of the title, the small rooster towards the lower left and the child holding a small yellow lamb towards the left. As the artist himself explained: 'The fact that I made use of cows, milkmaids, roosters and provincial Russian architecture as my source forms is because they are part of the environment from which I spring and which undoubtedly left the deepest impression on my visual memory of the experiences I have', (Chagall, quoted in B. Harshav, ed., Marc Chagall on Art and Culture, Stanford, 2003, p. 83).
Although Chagall insisted throughout his career that it was not his intention to create paintings which were symbolic in nature, the autobiographical lexicon inherent in his works is certainly hard to ignore. Ane bleu was painted at a time when Chagall had achieved happiness in his romantic life, and was enjoying professional success as well. In Ane bleu, this joyful exuberance—along with a wistful reminder of the artist's youth—is readily apparent.