La danse

In February 1950 two of the founders of the Watergate Theatre in London came to know Marc Chagall who was wintering at Cap Ferrat in the South of France, and told him of their theatre, designed to be an experimental centre for the arts. Chagall offered to paint murals for it which would be his first mural decorations for a theatre since his work for the State Jewish Theatre, Moscow, in 1919-20. Some months later two large paintings, La danse and Le cirque bleu arrived in London, and were placed on the side walls of the auditorium. They remained there until February 1951, when the artist recalled them for an exhibition of large paintings at the Galerie Maeght in Paris and his exhibition at Nice the following winter. Upon Chagall’s death both works were donated to the Musée national d’art Moderne in Paris.

The present lot is a unique tapestry of La danse, commissioned from the master weaver Yvette Cauquil-Prince. In 1964, Chagall became acquainted with Yvette Cauquil-Prince, whose weaving atelier had already been working with many of Chagall's contemporaries - Max Ernst, Fernand Léger, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky and Alexander Calder - to translate their work into tapestries. Chagall was very taken with the quality of her work, and from then on had his tapestry designs executed in her studio. From existing lithographs, gouaches and other media she made 24 highly acclaimed tapestries on Biblical themes, the circus, and other Chagall subjects.