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Lot Essay
This work is sold with a photo-certificate from David McNeil.
When Chagall returned to Russia following his time in Paris, he found his beloved Bella whom he had been separated from during those formative years. On 25 July 1915, Bella Rosenfeld and Marc Chagall were married and a year later the young woman gave birth to their daughter Idotchka, or Ida.
By that time, the Chagalls had moved to St. Petersburg, where they stayed until autumn 1917. Through Bella's brother, Yakov Rosenfeld, Chagall was employed in the department of public relations at the Central Bureau for War Economy. This drew him closer to the intellectual circles and to Russian poets, such as Alexander Blok, Sergei Jessenin and Boris Pasternak. Chagall also regularly displayed at Dobycina's gallery and he participated in several group exhibitions in Moscow.
The tenderness between Bella and her baby Ida is striking in the present drawing. Here Chagall represents himself as an artist with his paintbrushes and easel, confident in his career, but he also shows how he assumes his new role as a father, overlooking his wife and daughter. Stylistically, the purity of line is closely related to his early Parisian drawings and especially to those of the 1920s (lots 584 & 588).
(fig. 1) Marc and Bella Chagall with their daughter Ida; © Archives Marc et Ida Chagall, Paris and DACS, London 2007.
When Chagall returned to Russia following his time in Paris, he found his beloved Bella whom he had been separated from during those formative years. On 25 July 1915, Bella Rosenfeld and Marc Chagall were married and a year later the young woman gave birth to their daughter Idotchka, or Ida.
By that time, the Chagalls had moved to St. Petersburg, where they stayed until autumn 1917. Through Bella's brother, Yakov Rosenfeld, Chagall was employed in the department of public relations at the Central Bureau for War Economy. This drew him closer to the intellectual circles and to Russian poets, such as Alexander Blok, Sergei Jessenin and Boris Pasternak. Chagall also regularly displayed at Dobycina's gallery and he participated in several group exhibitions in Moscow.
The tenderness between Bella and her baby Ida is striking in the present drawing. Here Chagall represents himself as an artist with his paintbrushes and easel, confident in his career, but he also shows how he assumes his new role as a father, overlooking his wife and daughter. Stylistically, the purity of line is closely related to his early Parisian drawings and especially to those of the 1920s (lots 584 & 588).
(fig. 1) Marc and Bella Chagall with their daughter Ida; © Archives Marc et Ida Chagall, Paris and DACS, London 2007.