Lot Essay
Painted in clouds of rich, glowing red pigment, Coq sur fond rouge entre Paris et Vitebsk is a powerful celebration of Marc Chagall’s deep love for both his hometown of Vitebsk and his adopted city of Paris. To the left of the scene, the artist transports the viewer to the French capital via a series of iconic landmarks, including the sinuous path of the Seine with its many bridges, the towering silhouette of the Eiffel Tower as it soars upwards above the cityscape, and the familiar two towers of the west façade of Notre Dame Cathedral in the distance. On the opposite bank, Vitebsk appears as a sprawl of single-storey dwellings, closely packed together while the green dome of one of the town’s myriad churches punctuates the skyline. Imaginatively fusing the two locations in a single picture, visually linked by the river, the artist creates a lyrical work that fuses memory and personal experience with a dream-like quality, highlighting the ways in which both Paris and Vitebsk fuelled his creativity and imagination over the course of his extensive career.
Paris had been a revelation to Chagall when he first arrived in the city as a young student in 1910, the hectic pace, striking colours and bright lights of the bustling metropolis leaving him awestruck. ‘I seemed to be discovering light, colour, freedom, the sun, the joy of living, for the first time…’ he later recalled. ‘In Paris, I at last saw in a vision the kind of art I wanted to create’ (quoted in E. Roditi, Dialogues: Conversations with Artists in the Mid-Century, San Francisco, 1990, p. 20). Nevertheless, the bustling town of Vitebsk and the surrounding area in which he had spent his youth continued to occupy an important role in his imagination, its colourful play of life, exuberant religious festivals and characterful citizens inspiring his compositions. This push and pull between the two locations, between the past and the present, was indicated in a series of his compositions from this period, such as Autoportrait aux sept doigts (1912-13; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam). As Chagall explained, ‘The root soil of my art was Vitebsk, but like a tree, my art needed Paris like water, otherwise it would wither and die… To achieve the combination of refined expression with an art of the earth, I felt I had to seek the vitalizing waters of Paris’ (quoted in J. J. Sweeney, ‘An Interview with Marc Chagall,’ in Partisan Review, Vol. XI, no. 1, Winter 1944, p. 91).
The two places remained intrinsic to Chagall’s vision throughout the rest of his life, their distinctive architecture woven into the fabric of his compositions. Created in the final decade of the artist’s life, Coq sur fond rouge entre Paris et Vitebsk is a powerful testament to this, illustrating the hold both Paris and Vitebsk continued to exert on his memories, his imagination and his oeuvre. The dream-like atmosphere of the scene is accentuated by the series of vignettes, characters and animals that appear through the composition, from the artist with his palette and canvas, to the angel floating above the ethereal landscape, and the classic figure of the “Wandering Jew” as he leaves Vitebsk, his belongings bundled over one shoulder. Most notable is the young man who soars across the sky towards his beloved, a bouquet of flowers clutched in his hands, a symbolic offering that indicates his passionate ardour for his paramour, enveloped within the rooster or coq of the title, awaiting his arrival. The coq is often painted by Chagall together with lovers and can be read as a symbol of fertility - emphasising the sexuality of the female nude in this work - or of family and stability.
This flight from Paris to Vitebsk may have been inspired by memories of the artist’s own journey in 1914, when he returned home from his studies in the French capital and was reunited with his beloved Bella. Captured in bold, resonant red hues, Chagall imbues the scene with a pulsating, fiery, passionate energy, the delicately variegated gouache and fluidity and lightness of touch in the delicate lines of ink indicating his mastery of both techniques, while touches of pastel lend a sense of depth and texture to the composition.
Paris had been a revelation to Chagall when he first arrived in the city as a young student in 1910, the hectic pace, striking colours and bright lights of the bustling metropolis leaving him awestruck. ‘I seemed to be discovering light, colour, freedom, the sun, the joy of living, for the first time…’ he later recalled. ‘In Paris, I at last saw in a vision the kind of art I wanted to create’ (quoted in E. Roditi, Dialogues: Conversations with Artists in the Mid-Century, San Francisco, 1990, p. 20). Nevertheless, the bustling town of Vitebsk and the surrounding area in which he had spent his youth continued to occupy an important role in his imagination, its colourful play of life, exuberant religious festivals and characterful citizens inspiring his compositions. This push and pull between the two locations, between the past and the present, was indicated in a series of his compositions from this period, such as Autoportrait aux sept doigts (1912-13; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam). As Chagall explained, ‘The root soil of my art was Vitebsk, but like a tree, my art needed Paris like water, otherwise it would wither and die… To achieve the combination of refined expression with an art of the earth, I felt I had to seek the vitalizing waters of Paris’ (quoted in J. J. Sweeney, ‘An Interview with Marc Chagall,’ in Partisan Review, Vol. XI, no. 1, Winter 1944, p. 91).
The two places remained intrinsic to Chagall’s vision throughout the rest of his life, their distinctive architecture woven into the fabric of his compositions. Created in the final decade of the artist’s life, Coq sur fond rouge entre Paris et Vitebsk is a powerful testament to this, illustrating the hold both Paris and Vitebsk continued to exert on his memories, his imagination and his oeuvre. The dream-like atmosphere of the scene is accentuated by the series of vignettes, characters and animals that appear through the composition, from the artist with his palette and canvas, to the angel floating above the ethereal landscape, and the classic figure of the “Wandering Jew” as he leaves Vitebsk, his belongings bundled over one shoulder. Most notable is the young man who soars across the sky towards his beloved, a bouquet of flowers clutched in his hands, a symbolic offering that indicates his passionate ardour for his paramour, enveloped within the rooster or coq of the title, awaiting his arrival. The coq is often painted by Chagall together with lovers and can be read as a symbol of fertility - emphasising the sexuality of the female nude in this work - or of family and stability.
This flight from Paris to Vitebsk may have been inspired by memories of the artist’s own journey in 1914, when he returned home from his studies in the French capital and was reunited with his beloved Bella. Captured in bold, resonant red hues, Chagall imbues the scene with a pulsating, fiery, passionate energy, the delicately variegated gouache and fluidity and lightness of touch in the delicate lines of ink indicating his mastery of both techniques, while touches of pastel lend a sense of depth and texture to the composition.