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Lot Essay
“Time is a river without banks” -Marc Chagall
Chagall’s lovers exist in moments of tranquility, even if surrounded by clamor, confusion, or disarray. In the present work, newlyweds embrace as they float above, or perhaps even stand upon, a crimson goat. Behind, a lapis lazuli moon illuminates the darkness and indicates a nocturnal setting. For Chagall, both the rooster and the goat often served as autobiographical citations. Roaming about the snow-dusted village, “the animals represent harmony and contentment with the cyclic destiny of nature; the innocent acceptance of being a part of nature’s great ensemble of living things” (W. Haftmann, Chagall, New York, 1973, p. 136). Both are familiar motifs in Chagall’s landscapes, and the angular rooftops along the horizon recall those of the artist’s native Vitebsk. If rarely, the titular clock also appears throughout Chagall’s oeuvre. In this case, it alludes both to the inevitable passage of time, as well as the timelessness of Chagall’s dreamlike scenes, this wedding scene, and love itself. If the clock must swing back and forth with the seconds, and chime at each hour, it continues to do so, from its first appearance in the 1910s, at least until the painting of this work, in 1966.
The couple upon which the composition centers are the young Chagall, and his first love Bella, who can be identified by her pristine wedding dress. The couple fell in love in 1909, and Bella was the artist’s constant partner until 1944 when she suddenly died while the two sheltered out the war in America. She continued to live on in Chagall’s work until his death in 1985. Sidney Alexander has written: "Chagall and Bella remained lovers, though married; monogamous but not monotonous; lovers to the end, in a story so felicitous as to offer little drama to the biographer or novelist. Out of this domestic Eden, lived and remembered, poured an endless series of painted epithalamia: Bella as goddess, Bella as Venus, Bella as Bathsheba; Bella as the Shulamite of the Song of Songs; Bella as bride in her sperm-spurting gown, a sex comet; Bella as a white whish of rocket soaring toward the moon. Even after her death (when he was living with Virginia) whenever he painted a bride it was Bella; whenever he painted a bridal veil it referred to Bella" (Marc Chagall, A Biography, New York, 1978, p. 82).
Chagall’s lovers exist in moments of tranquility, even if surrounded by clamor, confusion, or disarray. In the present work, newlyweds embrace as they float above, or perhaps even stand upon, a crimson goat. Behind, a lapis lazuli moon illuminates the darkness and indicates a nocturnal setting. For Chagall, both the rooster and the goat often served as autobiographical citations. Roaming about the snow-dusted village, “the animals represent harmony and contentment with the cyclic destiny of nature; the innocent acceptance of being a part of nature’s great ensemble of living things” (W. Haftmann, Chagall, New York, 1973, p. 136). Both are familiar motifs in Chagall’s landscapes, and the angular rooftops along the horizon recall those of the artist’s native Vitebsk. If rarely, the titular clock also appears throughout Chagall’s oeuvre. In this case, it alludes both to the inevitable passage of time, as well as the timelessness of Chagall’s dreamlike scenes, this wedding scene, and love itself. If the clock must swing back and forth with the seconds, and chime at each hour, it continues to do so, from its first appearance in the 1910s, at least until the painting of this work, in 1966.
The couple upon which the composition centers are the young Chagall, and his first love Bella, who can be identified by her pristine wedding dress. The couple fell in love in 1909, and Bella was the artist’s constant partner until 1944 when she suddenly died while the two sheltered out the war in America. She continued to live on in Chagall’s work until his death in 1985. Sidney Alexander has written: "Chagall and Bella remained lovers, though married; monogamous but not monotonous; lovers to the end, in a story so felicitous as to offer little drama to the biographer or novelist. Out of this domestic Eden, lived and remembered, poured an endless series of painted epithalamia: Bella as goddess, Bella as Venus, Bella as Bathsheba; Bella as the Shulamite of the Song of Songs; Bella as bride in her sperm-spurting gown, a sex comet; Bella as a white whish of rocket soaring toward the moon. Even after her death (when he was living with Virginia) whenever he painted a bride it was Bella; whenever he painted a bridal veil it referred to Bella" (Marc Chagall, A Biography, New York, 1978, p. 82).