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拍品专文
The Comité Marc Chagall has confirmed the authenticity of this work.
The circus first became one of Chagall's major themes during his early years in Paris, under the influence of the art dealer Ambroise Vollard. After sponsoring the project on the Fables de La Fontaine, resulting in one hundred exquisite gouaches between 1926 and 1927, Vollard suggested that he undertake a series of circus subjects, intended to form a portfolio of etchings. To encourage his observation of the circus, Vollard made his private box at the Cirque d'Hiver available to Chagall, who spent hours watching and sketching the performance of trained horses, flying acrobats and melancholic clowns.
Intrigued by the poetic quality of this transient universe which echoed the folklore of his childhood, Chagall embraced the circus in his art, joining a long and distinguished line of painters who featured the circus in their work, including Edgar Degas, Georges Seurat, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Pablo Picasso and Fernand Léger. It remained a central motif throughout his career and when the portfolio of lithographs was published by Tériade in 1967 he commented, "Throughout the centuries [circus] has been man's most piercing cry in his search for entertainment and joy. It often takes the form of lofty poetry."
In Confidences au cirque, the theme permeates the entire composition, from the audience framing the ring to the acrobat in the middle of a balancing act or to the clown leaning over the bride, as if going to whisper a secret in her ear. But the intimacy between the clown and the bride, depicted in close-up at the center of the composition, draws the viewer into another recurrent theme of Chagall's pictorial universe: the nuptial scene. Similar to the paradox inherent in the circus between the bright colors, sounds, joy, and the palpable drama, tension and sorrows is the contrast in the picture between the setting of the audience-filled stands and the couple's attitude, as if unconscious of their own presence at the center of the ring.
The artist here assumes the role of the clown, as he admires his bride, who symbolizes his beloved first wife Bella (fig. 1). The close proximity of the two characters, protected and cut off from the exuberance of the circus as in a bubble relates to the comfort of loving and being loved in return, in which one may find refuge from the aggression of a chaotic world. This magical and soothing bond, experienced for many years by Chagall, was severed when--fleeing from Europe and the war in 1941--Bella died a few days after contracting influenza in New York.
As the war intensified, resulting in Chagall's work to gradually be colored by the anguish caused by so much violence and disruption, the strength and comfort of love was more poignant than ever. Chagall recreated it in his work from the death of Bella to the end of his life, through paintings representing lovers in their shared inner world.
(fig. 1) Marc and Bella Chagall in front of Les Fiancés, Paris, 1934. Lipnitzki-Viollet, Paris.
The circus first became one of Chagall's major themes during his early years in Paris, under the influence of the art dealer Ambroise Vollard. After sponsoring the project on the Fables de La Fontaine, resulting in one hundred exquisite gouaches between 1926 and 1927, Vollard suggested that he undertake a series of circus subjects, intended to form a portfolio of etchings. To encourage his observation of the circus, Vollard made his private box at the Cirque d'Hiver available to Chagall, who spent hours watching and sketching the performance of trained horses, flying acrobats and melancholic clowns.
Intrigued by the poetic quality of this transient universe which echoed the folklore of his childhood, Chagall embraced the circus in his art, joining a long and distinguished line of painters who featured the circus in their work, including Edgar Degas, Georges Seurat, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Pablo Picasso and Fernand Léger. It remained a central motif throughout his career and when the portfolio of lithographs was published by Tériade in 1967 he commented, "Throughout the centuries [circus] has been man's most piercing cry in his search for entertainment and joy. It often takes the form of lofty poetry."
In Confidences au cirque, the theme permeates the entire composition, from the audience framing the ring to the acrobat in the middle of a balancing act or to the clown leaning over the bride, as if going to whisper a secret in her ear. But the intimacy between the clown and the bride, depicted in close-up at the center of the composition, draws the viewer into another recurrent theme of Chagall's pictorial universe: the nuptial scene. Similar to the paradox inherent in the circus between the bright colors, sounds, joy, and the palpable drama, tension and sorrows is the contrast in the picture between the setting of the audience-filled stands and the couple's attitude, as if unconscious of their own presence at the center of the ring.
The artist here assumes the role of the clown, as he admires his bride, who symbolizes his beloved first wife Bella (fig. 1). The close proximity of the two characters, protected and cut off from the exuberance of the circus as in a bubble relates to the comfort of loving and being loved in return, in which one may find refuge from the aggression of a chaotic world. This magical and soothing bond, experienced for many years by Chagall, was severed when--fleeing from Europe and the war in 1941--Bella died a few days after contracting influenza in New York.
As the war intensified, resulting in Chagall's work to gradually be colored by the anguish caused by so much violence and disruption, the strength and comfort of love was more poignant than ever. Chagall recreated it in his work from the death of Bella to the end of his life, through paintings representing lovers in their shared inner world.
(fig. 1) Marc and Bella Chagall in front of Les Fiancés, Paris, 1934. Lipnitzki-Viollet, Paris.