Lot Essay
‘My paintings are my memories’
- Marc Chagall (quoted in J. Baal-Teshuva, Marc Chagall: 1887-1985, Cologne, 1998, p. 265).
Chagall’s preoccupation with love had its first flowering in his relationship with his wife Bella, whom he had met as a young man in his hometown of Vitebsk in 1909. Recalling their initial encounter in his autobiography, My Life, the artist revealed the intense emotions he felt upon seeing her for the first time: ‘Her silence is mine. Her eyes mine. I feel she has known me always, my childhood, my present life, my future; as if she were watching over me, divining my innermost being... I knew this is she, my wife...’ (M. Chagall, My Life, London, 2013, p. 77). Bella quickly became his muse and guiding light, transforming his paintings with her presence. Throughout the artist’s time in Paris, the pair remained connected through letters, in which they boldly declared their love for one another. From the earliest stages of their passionate relationship, Chagall’s paintings were infused with a heady sense of emotion, often channelled through portraits of Bella herself, or seen in the form of two lovers, or a bride and groom.
Even after the untimely loss of Bella in 1944, love remained the most powerful force that underpinned Chagall’s art, continuing to find expression in a myriad of subjects and forms throughout the rest of his career. In many ways, Bella’s presence remained at this heart of his vision – it was her love that had opened his eyes to the potential power of such a relationship, its ability to transform one’s life and outlook, and which allowed him to reach such a deep appreciation and layered understanding of love. ‘For years [Bella’s] love influenced my painting,’ he later explained (quoted in in J. Wullschlager, Chagall: Love and Exile, London, 2008, p. 317). However, while his visions of brides and lovers were tinged with the memory of Bella - the present work, painted only five years after her passing certainly must be - they came to stands as archetypal figures within his vocabulary, transcending personal experience and playing a wider symbolic role. They reappear time and again in his compositions, floating above ethereal landscapes that recall Vitebsk, Paris or Saint-Paul de Vence where he lived during his later years, positioned alongside or even among the blossoms of verdant bouquets, or standing amidst a crowd of characters in a complex narrative sequence.
- Marc Chagall (quoted in J. Baal-Teshuva, Marc Chagall: 1887-1985, Cologne, 1998, p. 265).
Chagall’s preoccupation with love had its first flowering in his relationship with his wife Bella, whom he had met as a young man in his hometown of Vitebsk in 1909. Recalling their initial encounter in his autobiography, My Life, the artist revealed the intense emotions he felt upon seeing her for the first time: ‘Her silence is mine. Her eyes mine. I feel she has known me always, my childhood, my present life, my future; as if she were watching over me, divining my innermost being... I knew this is she, my wife...’ (M. Chagall, My Life, London, 2013, p. 77). Bella quickly became his muse and guiding light, transforming his paintings with her presence. Throughout the artist’s time in Paris, the pair remained connected through letters, in which they boldly declared their love for one another. From the earliest stages of their passionate relationship, Chagall’s paintings were infused with a heady sense of emotion, often channelled through portraits of Bella herself, or seen in the form of two lovers, or a bride and groom.
Even after the untimely loss of Bella in 1944, love remained the most powerful force that underpinned Chagall’s art, continuing to find expression in a myriad of subjects and forms throughout the rest of his career. In many ways, Bella’s presence remained at this heart of his vision – it was her love that had opened his eyes to the potential power of such a relationship, its ability to transform one’s life and outlook, and which allowed him to reach such a deep appreciation and layered understanding of love. ‘For years [Bella’s] love influenced my painting,’ he later explained (quoted in in J. Wullschlager, Chagall: Love and Exile, London, 2008, p. 317). However, while his visions of brides and lovers were tinged with the memory of Bella - the present work, painted only five years after her passing certainly must be - they came to stands as archetypal figures within his vocabulary, transcending personal experience and playing a wider symbolic role. They reappear time and again in his compositions, floating above ethereal landscapes that recall Vitebsk, Paris or Saint-Paul de Vence where he lived during his later years, positioned alongside or even among the blossoms of verdant bouquets, or standing amidst a crowd of characters in a complex narrative sequence.