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Lot Essay
Created in 1926, Marc Chagall’s Hôtel de la Poste celebrates the artist’s love of the French provinces, and by extension, his love of France. Four years earlier, Chagall had been living in Russia; in search of new professional opportunities, he left for Berlin and was joined, soon thereafter, by his wife Bella and their daughter Ida. The family spent several months in the German capital before setting off for Paris, a city the artist had not stepped foot in since the onset of World War I interrupted his first youthful visit eight years earlier.
As before, the Chagalls fell quickly for Parisian life, but unlike their previous stay, this time they took every opportunity to journey into and explore the provinces. Chagall understood innately that to assimilate into French culture meant to embrace the idea of terroir, and therefore life outside of the city; to know France was to know its soil, and he and Bella dove headfirst into this assignment, touring Normandy, Provence, and the Côte d'Azur. ‘For him,’ Lionello Venturi noted, ‘even the French countryside in all its variety was an object of love’ (L. Venturi quoted in F. Meyer, Marc Chagall: Life and Work, New York, 1963, p. 337). Such wanderings necessarily informed his art and shifted his imagery away from his native village of Vitebsk: ‘I want an art of the earth and not merely an art of the head’ he said. (M. Chagall quoted in F. Fels, Propos d’artiste, Paris, 1925, p. 33).
Chagall, Bella, and Ida spent the summer of 1926 in the 19th century spa town of Châtelguyon, in the Auvergne, where Bella was taking a cure at the thermal baths. Enchanted by the region’s volcanic peaks and rocky outcroppings, they returned to stay in the small village of Lac Chambon; there, the Chagalls took rooms first on the village square and then later at the Hôtel de la Poste. After time spent in the luxury of the south, they were delighted by the severity and coarseness of the landscape. The setting proved particularly inspiring for the artist, and his output in Lac Chambon reflects the influence of the region. ‘There [were] very few places outside Vitebsk,’ Franz Meyer observed, ‘where Chagall did so many landscape studies, which shows what a close affinity he felt for the rustic world he discovered there’ (F. Meyer, Marc Chagall: Life and Work, New York, 1963, p. 349).
During this period, the artist was developing a series of illustrations for La Fontaine’s Fables, the beloved French classic which features tales of human and animal subjects, a project commissioned by Ambroise Vollard. As with Hôtel de la Poste, these too were done in gouache and evince the same free style of drawing, vibrant use of colour, and isolation of elements removed from their expected environments. Describing this collection of works, Meyer said, ‘All these pictures show the same cursory, vigorous handling. The brushwork has become extremely forceful… What we see in the picture is animated matter, pulsating with forces tranquil or turbulent, and radiating the brightness of life" (ibid., pp. 349-350).
This was to be a joyous decade for the Chagalls, and the artist later reflected that the 1920s were ‘the happiest time of my life’ (M. Chagall quoted in J. Wullschlager, Chagall: Love and Exile, London, 2008, p. 333). These were also the years during which Chagall cemented his reputation internationally: His first solo exhibition in the United States was held at the Reinhardt Gallery in New York; demand for his work was unparalleled; and in 1926, he signed with the prestigious Bernheim-Jeune Gallery in Paris, which represented artists such as Monet and Matisse. That same year, he was commissioned by Marcel Arland, the acclaimed French author and previous owner of Hôtel de la Poste, to create five etchings for his novel Maternité. The alliance between Chagall and Arland, who would be awarded the Prix Goncourt three years later, cemented the former’s status as a French artist. Chagall’s entrée into both France, as well as the international art world, was now complete.
As before, the Chagalls fell quickly for Parisian life, but unlike their previous stay, this time they took every opportunity to journey into and explore the provinces. Chagall understood innately that to assimilate into French culture meant to embrace the idea of terroir, and therefore life outside of the city; to know France was to know its soil, and he and Bella dove headfirst into this assignment, touring Normandy, Provence, and the Côte d'Azur. ‘For him,’ Lionello Venturi noted, ‘even the French countryside in all its variety was an object of love’ (L. Venturi quoted in F. Meyer, Marc Chagall: Life and Work, New York, 1963, p. 337). Such wanderings necessarily informed his art and shifted his imagery away from his native village of Vitebsk: ‘I want an art of the earth and not merely an art of the head’ he said. (M. Chagall quoted in F. Fels, Propos d’artiste, Paris, 1925, p. 33).
Chagall, Bella, and Ida spent the summer of 1926 in the 19th century spa town of Châtelguyon, in the Auvergne, where Bella was taking a cure at the thermal baths. Enchanted by the region’s volcanic peaks and rocky outcroppings, they returned to stay in the small village of Lac Chambon; there, the Chagalls took rooms first on the village square and then later at the Hôtel de la Poste. After time spent in the luxury of the south, they were delighted by the severity and coarseness of the landscape. The setting proved particularly inspiring for the artist, and his output in Lac Chambon reflects the influence of the region. ‘There [were] very few places outside Vitebsk,’ Franz Meyer observed, ‘where Chagall did so many landscape studies, which shows what a close affinity he felt for the rustic world he discovered there’ (F. Meyer, Marc Chagall: Life and Work, New York, 1963, p. 349).
During this period, the artist was developing a series of illustrations for La Fontaine’s Fables, the beloved French classic which features tales of human and animal subjects, a project commissioned by Ambroise Vollard. As with Hôtel de la Poste, these too were done in gouache and evince the same free style of drawing, vibrant use of colour, and isolation of elements removed from their expected environments. Describing this collection of works, Meyer said, ‘All these pictures show the same cursory, vigorous handling. The brushwork has become extremely forceful… What we see in the picture is animated matter, pulsating with forces tranquil or turbulent, and radiating the brightness of life" (ibid., pp. 349-350).
This was to be a joyous decade for the Chagalls, and the artist later reflected that the 1920s were ‘the happiest time of my life’ (M. Chagall quoted in J. Wullschlager, Chagall: Love and Exile, London, 2008, p. 333). These were also the years during which Chagall cemented his reputation internationally: His first solo exhibition in the United States was held at the Reinhardt Gallery in New York; demand for his work was unparalleled; and in 1926, he signed with the prestigious Bernheim-Jeune Gallery in Paris, which represented artists such as Monet and Matisse. That same year, he was commissioned by Marcel Arland, the acclaimed French author and previous owner of Hôtel de la Poste, to create five etchings for his novel Maternité. The alliance between Chagall and Arland, who would be awarded the Prix Goncourt three years later, cemented the former’s status as a French artist. Chagall’s entrée into both France, as well as the international art world, was now complete.