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Lot Essay
The circus lay at the heart of Marc Chagall’s rich personal mythology. Elements of the performance—clowns, acrobats, women riding horses, musicians, as well as the ringside stands brimming with spectators—offered the artist endless inspiration, a magical vision of light, color and life which he distilled into his painting. Filled with an eclectic cast of characters presented under a kaleidoscopic array of dazzling color, Le cirque rouge et bleu, painted circa 1969-1973, is bursting with the riotous energy of the performance, this electric atmosphere radiating outwards into the viewer’s space.
The primary attraction for Chagall in any circus was the performer on horseback. “All seem to be assembled here only for the glory of the bareback rider, her scintillation, the incitement of her revolutions,” Louis Aragon wrote of Chagall’s circus scenes. “We are caught up in the movement of the woman circling the ring, she whose beauty is the beauty of danger, waiting for her to come around again” (quoted in Marc Chagall: Recent Paintings, 1966-1968, exh. cat., Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York, 1968, n.p.).
In the present work, the female horseback rider takes center stage, clutching a bouquet of flowers as she soaks in the adulation of the audience surrounding her. To her left, an acrobat holds up a hoop, and to her right, a violinist appears to play, suggesting this circus star is about to perform an encore. “I would like to go up to that bareback rider who has just reappeared, smiling; her dress, a bouquet of flowers,” Chagall wrote in Le Cirque. “I would circle her with my flowered and unflowered years. On my knees, I would tell her my wishes and dreams, not of this world. I would run after her to ask her how to live, how to escape from myself, from the world, whom to run to, where to go” (Le Cirque, 1967, in Chagall, exh. cat., Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York, 1981, n.p.).
Le cirque rouge et bleu is also a reminiscence, as with so many of Chagall’s favorite subjects, of his past. His fascination with the world of traveling players had begun as a young man in Vitebsk, where he recalled seeing a family of acrobats performing in the street, attracting a small crowd as they executed their modest repertoire of moves. When he moved to Paris in 1910, he discovered a new world of dazzling entertainment. Like many of his contemporaries, Chagall went frequently to the famed Cirque Médrano, situated on the edge of Montmartre, and the Cirque d’Hiver in the 11th arrondissement. He joined a long line of artists working in France who featured the circus in their work, stemming from Antoine Watteau—a favorite of Chagall—and thereafter including Edgar Degas, Georges Seurat, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and among his immediate contemporaries, Pablo Picasso, Kees van Dongen and Fernand Léger.
The circus subjects that Chagall developed from this period continued to inspire the artist for the next half century of his thriving career. For Chagall, however, the circus was more than simply a means for artistic experimentation, it was a metaphor for life. As he explained, “For me a circus is a magic show that appears and disappears like a world. A circus is disturbing. It is profound... These clowns, bareback riders and acrobats have themselves at home in my visions... It is a magic word, circus, a timeless dancing game where tears and smiles, the play of arms and legs take the form of a great art...” (ibid.).
The primary attraction for Chagall in any circus was the performer on horseback. “All seem to be assembled here only for the glory of the bareback rider, her scintillation, the incitement of her revolutions,” Louis Aragon wrote of Chagall’s circus scenes. “We are caught up in the movement of the woman circling the ring, she whose beauty is the beauty of danger, waiting for her to come around again” (quoted in Marc Chagall: Recent Paintings, 1966-1968, exh. cat., Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York, 1968, n.p.).
In the present work, the female horseback rider takes center stage, clutching a bouquet of flowers as she soaks in the adulation of the audience surrounding her. To her left, an acrobat holds up a hoop, and to her right, a violinist appears to play, suggesting this circus star is about to perform an encore. “I would like to go up to that bareback rider who has just reappeared, smiling; her dress, a bouquet of flowers,” Chagall wrote in Le Cirque. “I would circle her with my flowered and unflowered years. On my knees, I would tell her my wishes and dreams, not of this world. I would run after her to ask her how to live, how to escape from myself, from the world, whom to run to, where to go” (Le Cirque, 1967, in Chagall, exh. cat., Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York, 1981, n.p.).
Le cirque rouge et bleu is also a reminiscence, as with so many of Chagall’s favorite subjects, of his past. His fascination with the world of traveling players had begun as a young man in Vitebsk, where he recalled seeing a family of acrobats performing in the street, attracting a small crowd as they executed their modest repertoire of moves. When he moved to Paris in 1910, he discovered a new world of dazzling entertainment. Like many of his contemporaries, Chagall went frequently to the famed Cirque Médrano, situated on the edge of Montmartre, and the Cirque d’Hiver in the 11th arrondissement. He joined a long line of artists working in France who featured the circus in their work, stemming from Antoine Watteau—a favorite of Chagall—and thereafter including Edgar Degas, Georges Seurat, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and among his immediate contemporaries, Pablo Picasso, Kees van Dongen and Fernand Léger.
The circus subjects that Chagall developed from this period continued to inspire the artist for the next half century of his thriving career. For Chagall, however, the circus was more than simply a means for artistic experimentation, it was a metaphor for life. As he explained, “For me a circus is a magic show that appears and disappears like a world. A circus is disturbing. It is profound... These clowns, bareback riders and acrobats have themselves at home in my visions... It is a magic word, circus, a timeless dancing game where tears and smiles, the play of arms and legs take the form of a great art...” (ibid.).