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拍品專文
Chagall’s Nu au divan is a dreamy nocturnal scene that combines both memory and fantasy. The painting represents a dark-haired nude reclining on a sofa bed, which appears to float against the background of a quiet townscape—perhaps an evocation of the artist’s own native Vitebsk. The nude’s pale pink flesh, as well as the white bedsheets beneath her, have been cast in the same blue as the night sky, which is illuminated by the glow of a yellow crescent moon. The male lover kneeling by her side, bearing a lush bouquet of red and white flowers, is almost totally overshadowed by her radiant beauty, Chagall’s enthusiastic, fluid brushwork, particularly in the facture of the linens and the lover’s bouquet, yields a palpable surface texture—a hallmark of his mature painting style.
The erotic vision depicted in Nu au divan has its origins in Chagall’s own experience. In his memoir, My Life, written in 1922, Chagall recalled an early encounter with his first wife, Bella, while they lived in Vitebsk:
"It's dark.
I kiss her.
A still life magically takes shape in my mind.
She poses for me.
Reclining, a rounded white nude takes shape.
I approach her timidly. I confess it was the first time I had seen a nude.
Although she was practically my fiancée I was still afraid of approaching her, of going any nearer, of touching all that loveliness. As if a feast were spread before your eyes"
(M. Chagall, My Life, London, 1965, p. 79).
This intimate memory has a clear similarities with the subject matter of Nu au divan. Yet Chagall’s study of a reclining female nude also invokes a long tradition within the history of European painting, from the Renaissance Venuses of Titian to the Neoclassical Odalisques of Jean-Auguste-Domonique Ingres. Modern painters in France also used the subject of the female nude as a vehicle for formal experimentation; consider, for example, the radical flatness of Edouard Manet’s Olympia (1863, Musée d’Orsay), or the bold pigmentation of Henri Matisse’s Fauvist Nu bleu (1907, Baltimore Museum of Art). Chagall’s unconventional approach towards form and perspective, as well as his brilliant use of color, was informed by these avant-garde icons.
Nu au divan likely dates to the mature phase of the artist’s career in the 1930s and early 1940s. During these decades, which he spent in Paris and New York City, Chagall experienced significant personal and professional change. In 1933, Chagall earned his first major retrospective at the Kunsthalle Basel, and he began to travel extensively throughout Europe. In 1941, the artist and his wife were forced to flee to the United States due to the spread of World War II. In 1946, while still mourning Bella’s unexpected death in 1944, Chagall was granted a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. On one hand, Chagall received recognition for his distinctive style of painting; on the other, he was forced to contend with the trauma of war, exile, and the loss of his lifelong love.
Throughout this tumultuous period, Chagall’s art embodied youthful notions of love and pleasure, but also the loss and longing that accompany old age. These universal—but also deeply personal—themes are on full display in Nu au divan, which remained in the artist’s collection until his death in 1985.
The erotic vision depicted in Nu au divan has its origins in Chagall’s own experience. In his memoir, My Life, written in 1922, Chagall recalled an early encounter with his first wife, Bella, while they lived in Vitebsk:
"It's dark.
I kiss her.
A still life magically takes shape in my mind.
She poses for me.
Reclining, a rounded white nude takes shape.
I approach her timidly. I confess it was the first time I had seen a nude.
Although she was practically my fiancée I was still afraid of approaching her, of going any nearer, of touching all that loveliness. As if a feast were spread before your eyes"
(M. Chagall, My Life, London, 1965, p. 79).
This intimate memory has a clear similarities with the subject matter of Nu au divan. Yet Chagall’s study of a reclining female nude also invokes a long tradition within the history of European painting, from the Renaissance Venuses of Titian to the Neoclassical Odalisques of Jean-Auguste-Domonique Ingres. Modern painters in France also used the subject of the female nude as a vehicle for formal experimentation; consider, for example, the radical flatness of Edouard Manet’s Olympia (1863, Musée d’Orsay), or the bold pigmentation of Henri Matisse’s Fauvist Nu bleu (1907, Baltimore Museum of Art). Chagall’s unconventional approach towards form and perspective, as well as his brilliant use of color, was informed by these avant-garde icons.
Nu au divan likely dates to the mature phase of the artist’s career in the 1930s and early 1940s. During these decades, which he spent in Paris and New York City, Chagall experienced significant personal and professional change. In 1933, Chagall earned his first major retrospective at the Kunsthalle Basel, and he began to travel extensively throughout Europe. In 1941, the artist and his wife were forced to flee to the United States due to the spread of World War II. In 1946, while still mourning Bella’s unexpected death in 1944, Chagall was granted a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. On one hand, Chagall received recognition for his distinctive style of painting; on the other, he was forced to contend with the trauma of war, exile, and the loss of his lifelong love.
Throughout this tumultuous period, Chagall’s art embodied youthful notions of love and pleasure, but also the loss and longing that accompany old age. These universal—but also deeply personal—themes are on full display in Nu au divan, which remained in the artist’s collection until his death in 1985.