MARC CHAGALL (1887-1985)

Le poisson volant

Details

MARC CHAGALL (1887-1985)
Le poisson volant
signed and dated 'MARC CHAGALL 1956' (lower right)
oil on canvas
34¾ x 52 5/8 in. (87.5 x 133.7 cm.)
Painted in 1956

Provenance

Galerie Maeght, Paris.
Acquavella Galleries, Inc., New York.
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Rosenshaft, New York.
Anon. sale, Christie's, London, 1 July 1998, lot 28.
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.

Literature

J. Paulhan, "Chagall à sa juste place", in Derrière le Miroir, July-August 1957, no. 15 (illustrated).
F. Meyer, Marc Chagall, Life and Work, New York 1963, no. 955, p. 552 (illustrated).
Réalitiés, 1970, p. 88 (illustrated in color).

Exhibited

Basel, Kunsthalle (no. 58); Brussels, Palais des Beaux Arts; and Bern, Kunsthalle Marc Chagall, Werke aus den letzen 25 Jahres, August-October 1956, no. 42.
Paris, Galerie Maeght, Peintures Exposées 1955-1957, July-August 1957, no. 15.
Hamburg, Kunstverein (no. 165a); Munich, Haus der Kunst; and Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Marc Chagall, February-October 1959, no. 170 (illustrated, p. 420).
New York, Perls Galleries, Marc Chagall Paintings 1955-1964, April-May 1965, no. 3.
Paris, Galerie Maeght, Hommage à Marc Chagall: Oeuvres de 1947-1967, 1967, no. 85 (illustrated in color; incorrectly dated 1966).

Lot Essay

In Le poisson volant, Chagall depicts the powerful dreamworld of the unconscious through the dramatic image of a fish dominating the night sky. A symbol of the "depths" of the unconscious of water and the moon, this dream-like fish stretches across the nocturnal seascape conveying both a sense of the calmness and the fantastic dreamworld of sleep. With its crescent moon reflected in the midnight water, upturned sail boat and sleeping fisherman, all drowning in a radiant hue of darkest blue, the imagery of the painting poetically expresses the world of unconscious imagination to which Chagall was so drawn.

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