L'Acrobate

Painted in 1926-1927, Marc Chagall’s L’Acrobate is a striking evocation of one of the artist’s most enduring themes: the circus. The composition centers on the daring performance of its titular acrobat, poised atop a white horse, her vividly patterned costume and dramatically raised leg emphasizing both balance and bravura. Below, a secondary figure gestures outward, engaging the audience, yet it is the acrobat who commands the scene. Chagall’s richly decorative brushwork enlivens every surface—from the intricate patterns of the performers’ costumes to the ornamental textile draped across the horse and the surrounding tent—creating an immersive, theatrical world that mirrors the vibrancy and spectacle of the circus itself.
The theme of the circus emerged in Chagall’s oeuvre as early as the 1910s, in works such as L’Acrobate, 1914, now in the collection of the Buffalo AKG Art Museum. Indeed, as both a subject and an event, Chagall was long fascinated by the circus, having watched in awe as a child when traveling acrobats would entertain crowds in his native Vitebsk. After moving to Paris, he attended the famed performances at the Cirque d’Hiver and was so enchanted by the dazzling mix of theater and dance that he eventually accepted Ambroise Vollard’s proposal in 1927 to produce a series of circus-themed works, known as the Cirque Vollard series.
The marvel of the circus, with its daredevil performers, vivid costumes, and dazzling electric lights, was a popular subject for Post-Impressionist and avant-garde artists alike, from Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Georges Seurat, to Kees van Dongen and Pablo Picasso, among many others. They were intrigued not only by the dramatic displays but also by the range of emotions such performances brought about. As art historian Richard Thomson noted, “Part of the fascination was because travelling players lived on the edge. They were people with no fixed abode, who were reliant on good weather and the goodwill of the public… Artists identified with people on the edge of society… So, circus performers became an equivalent for artists, who treated them almost autobiographically” (quoted in A. Sooke, “Why the circus fascinated modern artists,” BBC, 7 March 2017).
The circus served both as a site of escape, allowing the public to momentarily leave behind the banal and quotidian, and as a deeply human stage, imbued with poignancy and pathos. Chagall would return to this theme throughout his career, depicting dazzling feats of acrobatics and a whole range of human emotions. “It is a magic word, circus, a timeless dancing game where tears and smiles, the play of arms and legs take the form of a great art,” he later reflected. “Night brings them solitude, sadness. Until the next day when the evening flooded with electric lights announces a new old-life… I have always thought of clowns, acrobats and actors as tragically human, who, for me, are like characters in certain religious paintings” (quoted in J. Baal-Teshuva, ed., Chagall: 1887-1985, London, 2003, p. 197).
The present work has an illustrious provenance. L’Acrobate was previously in the collection of the actress Paulette Goddard, who starred in movies alongside Hollywood’s Golden Age greats, including Bob Hope, Joan Crawford, and Charlie Chaplin, whom she later married. Devoted to the arts, Goddard’s collection included works by Paul Cezanne, Claude Monet, and Edgar Degas. Her portrait was painted by Diego Rivera, who also depicted her in his celebrated mural Pan American Unity.
L'Acrobate was later acquired by David and Peggy Rockefeller, whose art collection was renowned for its breadth, depth, and quality. A leading philanthropist, David Rockefeller’s love of art came from his mother, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, who co-founded The Museum of Modern Art, New York, where he later served as a trustee. In 1960, L’Acrobate was sold to benefit the museum and was acquired by Joan Whitney and Charles Shipman Payson, in whose family it has remained since.