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Lot Essay
This work is sold with a photo-certificate from David McNeil.
Illustrated in several of the main books on Chagall, this pencil drawing is one of Chagall's rare early sketches which have survived. According to Meyer, not more than three drawings of such an early date remained in the artist's archives, Le Bal (M 3), Sur le banc (M 4) and the present drawing - these were all executed outside Chagall's classes in Jehuda Pen's school.
The satirical tone of this drawing, with the grotesque man facing the woman as 'massive as a mountain' (M p. 45), does not aim at caricature. Despite the apparent irony of the title Amour, Chagall purposely keeps it to accentuate the rustic reality of his two figures. In this sketch, Chagall concentrates on depicting the daily existence of these lower and middle class inhabitants of the provincial township, as opposed to representing them in Pen's banal realist style. Meyer points out the link with Judaist iconoclasm, consisting in preventing images of the outer reality from weakening the inner reality. By using the intermediary of the grotesque, Chagall offers another reality wherein the soul can find itself.
Illustrated in several of the main books on Chagall, this pencil drawing is one of Chagall's rare early sketches which have survived. According to Meyer, not more than three drawings of such an early date remained in the artist's archives, Le Bal (M 3), Sur le banc (M 4) and the present drawing - these were all executed outside Chagall's classes in Jehuda Pen's school.
The satirical tone of this drawing, with the grotesque man facing the woman as 'massive as a mountain' (M p. 45), does not aim at caricature. Despite the apparent irony of the title Amour, Chagall purposely keeps it to accentuate the rustic reality of his two figures. In this sketch, Chagall concentrates on depicting the daily existence of these lower and middle class inhabitants of the provincial township, as opposed to representing them in Pen's banal realist style. Meyer points out the link with Judaist iconoclasm, consisting in preventing images of the outer reality from weakening the inner reality. By using the intermediary of the grotesque, Chagall offers another reality wherein the soul can find itself.