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拍品专文
This work is sold with a photo-certificate from the Comité Marc Chagall.
The dazzling 1927 composition, L'âne à la tour Eiffel, was painted during a period of unparalleled happiness and contentment for Chagall and his family. Facing increasing intolerance under the new Russian regime, Chagall returned to Paris in 1923 where he was immediately enchanted by the liberty, light and colour of his adoptive homeland. Now a respected and successful artist, he benefited from the financial security afforded him through sales of his works and exhibitions in France, Germany and New York and was able to explore France at his leisure. Further inspiration was derived from Parisian artistic and literary circles through friendships with Robert and Sonia Delaunay, Maurice Raynal, Lakhovski, Simon Lévy and of course, Tériade. His ecstatic response to the avant-garde artistic climate in Paris at that time and his enhanced confidence in his own merit caused him to comment in hindsight: 'That was the happiest time of my life' (F. Meyer, Chagall, London, 1964, p. 350).
Paris represented a powerful source of inspiration: 'In Paris I frequented neither schools nor teachers. I found them in the city itself, at every step, everywhere. There were tradesmen in the market, the café waiters, the concierges, the peasants, the workers. Around them hovered this astonishing "freedom-light", which I have never seen elsewhere. And this light passed easily onto the canvases of the great French masters and was reborn in art. I couldn't help thinking: only this "freedom-light", more luminous than all the sources of artificial light, can give birth to such shining canvases, in which revolutions in technique are as natural as the language, the gestures, the work of the passers-by in the street' (quoted in Chagall: A Retrospective, New York, 1995, p. 74). Paris, in the form of the Eiffel Tower, symbolic of its progress and modernity, appeared frequently in the artist's work at this time.
The present work was prefigured by a composition in gouache executed in 1926 (fig. 1). This nocturnal scene is a joyous celebration of Chagall's second home. The Eiffel Tower, the only visual reference to the City of Light, is vibrantly constructed with intense red and green hues. It projects stridently from the earth, framed by a deep blue, star-spotted sky, partially obscured by a swirling, white mist. The large pale moon conveys a mood of serenity and peace, an evocation of the inner harmony present in Chagall's life. Dominating the foreground, a white horse stands proud, splashed in brilliant, vermilion red. Chagall empathised with horses since his childhood, much of which was passed at his grandfather's stable. 'All my life I have drawn horses that look more like donkeys or cows. At the sight of horses, who are always in a state of ecstasy, I think: are they not, perhaps, happier than we? You can kneel down peacefully before a horse and pray. It always lowers its eyes in a rush of modesty. I hear the echo of horses' hooves in the pit of my stomach. I could race on a horse for the first time and the last time, to the brilliant arena of life' (quoted in ibid., p. 196).
Tériade was a great admirer of Chagall, publishing five books in all by the artist: Les Ames Mortes, Fables de la Fontaine, Bible, Daphnis et Chloé, and Le Cirque; and devoting three issues of Verve to him, including the last issue (printed in 1960) with Chagall's Dessins pour la Bible. Their bond strengthened in 1949, when Chagall spent four months at St. Jean-Cap-Ferrat close to the home of Tériade, who fostered Chagall's interest in Greece by sowing the seeds for Daphnis et Chloé.
(fig. 1) Marc Chagall, La tour Eiffel, 1927.
Brussels, Musée Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique.
The dazzling 1927 composition, L'âne à la tour Eiffel, was painted during a period of unparalleled happiness and contentment for Chagall and his family. Facing increasing intolerance under the new Russian regime, Chagall returned to Paris in 1923 where he was immediately enchanted by the liberty, light and colour of his adoptive homeland. Now a respected and successful artist, he benefited from the financial security afforded him through sales of his works and exhibitions in France, Germany and New York and was able to explore France at his leisure. Further inspiration was derived from Parisian artistic and literary circles through friendships with Robert and Sonia Delaunay, Maurice Raynal, Lakhovski, Simon Lévy and of course, Tériade. His ecstatic response to the avant-garde artistic climate in Paris at that time and his enhanced confidence in his own merit caused him to comment in hindsight: 'That was the happiest time of my life' (F. Meyer, Chagall, London, 1964, p. 350).
Paris represented a powerful source of inspiration: 'In Paris I frequented neither schools nor teachers. I found them in the city itself, at every step, everywhere. There were tradesmen in the market, the café waiters, the concierges, the peasants, the workers. Around them hovered this astonishing "freedom-light", which I have never seen elsewhere. And this light passed easily onto the canvases of the great French masters and was reborn in art. I couldn't help thinking: only this "freedom-light", more luminous than all the sources of artificial light, can give birth to such shining canvases, in which revolutions in technique are as natural as the language, the gestures, the work of the passers-by in the street' (quoted in Chagall: A Retrospective, New York, 1995, p. 74). Paris, in the form of the Eiffel Tower, symbolic of its progress and modernity, appeared frequently in the artist's work at this time.
The present work was prefigured by a composition in gouache executed in 1926 (fig. 1). This nocturnal scene is a joyous celebration of Chagall's second home. The Eiffel Tower, the only visual reference to the City of Light, is vibrantly constructed with intense red and green hues. It projects stridently from the earth, framed by a deep blue, star-spotted sky, partially obscured by a swirling, white mist. The large pale moon conveys a mood of serenity and peace, an evocation of the inner harmony present in Chagall's life. Dominating the foreground, a white horse stands proud, splashed in brilliant, vermilion red. Chagall empathised with horses since his childhood, much of which was passed at his grandfather's stable. 'All my life I have drawn horses that look more like donkeys or cows. At the sight of horses, who are always in a state of ecstasy, I think: are they not, perhaps, happier than we? You can kneel down peacefully before a horse and pray. It always lowers its eyes in a rush of modesty. I hear the echo of horses' hooves in the pit of my stomach. I could race on a horse for the first time and the last time, to the brilliant arena of life' (quoted in ibid., p. 196).
Tériade was a great admirer of Chagall, publishing five books in all by the artist: Les Ames Mortes, Fables de la Fontaine, Bible, Daphnis et Chloé, and Le Cirque; and devoting three issues of Verve to him, including the last issue (printed in 1960) with Chagall's Dessins pour la Bible. Their bond strengthened in 1949, when Chagall spent four months at St. Jean-Cap-Ferrat close to the home of Tériade, who fostered Chagall's interest in Greece by sowing the seeds for Daphnis et Chloé.
(fig. 1) Marc Chagall, La tour Eiffel, 1927.
Brussels, Musée Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique.