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Lot Essay
Chagall stated in 1967 about his preoccupation with the circus:
"These clowns ... have made themselves at home in my visions. Why? Why am I so touched by their make-up and their grimaces? With them I can move toward new horizons. Lured by their colours and make-up, I dream of painting new psychic distortions. Alas, in my life I have seen a grotesque circus ... A revolution that does not lead to its ideal is, perhaps, a circus too. I wish I could hide all these troubling thoughts and feelings in the opulent tail of a circus horse and run after it, like a little clown, begging for mercy, begging it to chase the sadness from the world."
(Exhibition Catalogue, Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York, Marc Chagall, Le Cirque, Paintings 1969-70, 1981, p. 26)
"These clowns ... have made themselves at home in my visions. Why? Why am I so touched by their make-up and their grimaces? With them I can move toward new horizons. Lured by their colours and make-up, I dream of painting new psychic distortions. Alas, in my life I have seen a grotesque circus ... A revolution that does not lead to its ideal is, perhaps, a circus too. I wish I could hide all these troubling thoughts and feelings in the opulent tail of a circus horse and run after it, like a little clown, begging for mercy, begging it to chase the sadness from the world."
(Exhibition Catalogue, Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York, Marc Chagall, Le Cirque, Paintings 1969-70, 1981, p. 26)