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Lot Essay
This work is sold with a photo-certificate from David McNeil.
Despite its stylistic similarities with Chagall's early drawings produced in Vitebsk of 1908, Rakitin suggests a later date of execution for the present drawing by comparing it with a gouache of the same subject dated 1916-1917, La fête des Tabernacles or Soukkoth (M 257; Private collection, Lucerne; fig. 1). It could also be a preparatory sketch for the Seasons realised for the Jewish School in St. Petersburg. The annotated dimensions of 150 x 110 cm. at the lower right of the sheet would certainly second the theory of La Fête juive being a preparatory drawing for a larger painting.
The religious ceremony takes place in the backyard of a typical provincial Russian house, similar to that in Ma maison (lot 575), where the female figure, at the centre of the composition, brings the traditional Jewish blinis to the seated men under the tent, decorated with branches. The act of fasting and sharing meals are two important aspects of the Jewish tradition, and Chagall describes them at length in My Life, The present work refers to a traditional feast which was celebrated in the 16th and 17th centuries in Jewish communities of Central Europe, during the summer when the trees were fully blossomed.
(fig. 1) Marc Chagall, La fête des Tabernacles, 1916. Private Collection, Lucerne; © ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2007.
Despite its stylistic similarities with Chagall's early drawings produced in Vitebsk of 1908, Rakitin suggests a later date of execution for the present drawing by comparing it with a gouache of the same subject dated 1916-1917, La fête des Tabernacles or Soukkoth (M 257; Private collection, Lucerne; fig. 1). It could also be a preparatory sketch for the Seasons realised for the Jewish School in St. Petersburg. The annotated dimensions of 150 x 110 cm. at the lower right of the sheet would certainly second the theory of La Fête juive being a preparatory drawing for a larger painting.
The religious ceremony takes place in the backyard of a typical provincial Russian house, similar to that in Ma maison (lot 575), where the female figure, at the centre of the composition, brings the traditional Jewish blinis to the seated men under the tent, decorated with branches. The act of fasting and sharing meals are two important aspects of the Jewish tradition, and Chagall describes them at length in My Life, The present work refers to a traditional feast which was celebrated in the 16th and 17th centuries in Jewish communities of Central Europe, during the summer when the trees were fully blossomed.
(fig. 1) Marc Chagall, La fête des Tabernacles, 1916. Private Collection, Lucerne; © ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2007.