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Lot Essay
The Comité Marc Chagall has confirmed the authenticity of this work.
“The few pieces, these few samples of ceramics are a sort of foretaste: the result of my life in the south of France where one feels so strongly the significance of this craft. The very earth on which I walk is so luminous. It looks at me tenderly, as if it were calling me.” – Marc Chagall
Shortly after arriving in Vence, Chagall grew inspired by the local ceramic traditions. Nearby in Vallauris, Pablo Picasso had already begun his foray into ceramics under the guidance of Suzanne and Georges Ramié the owners of the Madoura atelier. Beginning with rectangular, flat plates that mimicked the shapes of his canvases, Chagall’s focus was on the white earthenware’s ability to bring his paintings alive. By 1952, Chagall adroitly explored the third dimensionality offered by the possibilities of the medium.
As Meret Meyer explains, “Chagall began to redefine form through new-found creative inventions and inversions, usually retaining the object’s original function but incorporating a small number of sculptural appendages. The longer he immersed himself in the art of ceramics, the more he abandoned the original, generic shapes—a move that allowed for more dominant sculptural elements to emerge and supersede… The three-dimensional ceramic forms with additional painted figures in low relief generate a dialogue, in both their interiority and every angle of exteriority. An essential feature is the way the clay ‘skin’ of these figures appears to breathe; partly matte and silky and partly glossy, with incised furrows that are at once strong and fragile. The pieces alternately absorb and reflect the light with a brilliance emanating from a unique, eternal energy” (quoted in “Chagall’s Ceramics: An Artist’s Reverence for the Soil?,” Marc Chagall: Keramiek, exh. cat, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 2005, p. 17).
“The few pieces, these few samples of ceramics are a sort of foretaste: the result of my life in the south of France where one feels so strongly the significance of this craft. The very earth on which I walk is so luminous. It looks at me tenderly, as if it were calling me.” – Marc Chagall
Shortly after arriving in Vence, Chagall grew inspired by the local ceramic traditions. Nearby in Vallauris, Pablo Picasso had already begun his foray into ceramics under the guidance of Suzanne and Georges Ramié the owners of the Madoura atelier. Beginning with rectangular, flat plates that mimicked the shapes of his canvases, Chagall’s focus was on the white earthenware’s ability to bring his paintings alive. By 1952, Chagall adroitly explored the third dimensionality offered by the possibilities of the medium.
As Meret Meyer explains, “Chagall began to redefine form through new-found creative inventions and inversions, usually retaining the object’s original function but incorporating a small number of sculptural appendages. The longer he immersed himself in the art of ceramics, the more he abandoned the original, generic shapes—a move that allowed for more dominant sculptural elements to emerge and supersede… The three-dimensional ceramic forms with additional painted figures in low relief generate a dialogue, in both their interiority and every angle of exteriority. An essential feature is the way the clay ‘skin’ of these figures appears to breathe; partly matte and silky and partly glossy, with incised furrows that are at once strong and fragile. The pieces alternately absorb and reflect the light with a brilliance emanating from a unique, eternal energy” (quoted in “Chagall’s Ceramics: An Artist’s Reverence for the Soil?,” Marc Chagall: Keramiek, exh. cat, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 2005, p. 17).