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Lot Essay
Painted in 1969-71, La famille is bathed in the light and the musicality that characterise Marc Chagall's greatest paintings. A strange and fantastical array of characters fills this canvas, most of them depicted with attributes that hint at the artist's own deeply personal iconography. The goat, the violinist, the mother... All of these are recurring elements that had an almost secret importance to Chagall, but above all it is the depiction of a couple that appeared again and again in his pictures. As a subject-matter, this had taken an increasingly central role in his pictures following the death of his first wife Bella, and had been infused with a new-found optimism during the 1950s when he met and then subsequently married his second wife, Valentina. Romance, rather than the absent beloved, returned to his pictures.
In La famille, the couple are the musician and the woman, and they are here presented as young parents. The woman appears as both lover and Madonna, with her breast visible underneath her dress. The latter association is made all the more apparent because she has been placed as though seated side-saddle on a donkey. Despite being a Jewish artist, Chagall found the iconography of Christianity a rich source of inspiration. Indeed, he sometimes explored his own Jewish identity through Christian themes. In a sense, this picture recalls the story of the Flight into Egypt, yet is filled with a levity and musicality that speak not of flight, but instead of comfort, of happiness and of love.
There is a combination of nostalgia, of thoughts of lovers, wives and mothers in this figure of a woman, but the point that is most emphasised in La famille is that of earthly pleasures. The picture is filled with music, with flowers, even with wine at the table behind the couple. Yet there is something that is unearthly about this vision. It is filled with figures and elements that appear to have strayed from the dreams of the artist and onto the canvas, introducing the viewer to Chagall's own mind and associations, to a private universe filled with memory, fantasy and whimsy. Strange creatures and not least a double-headed rider appear here like some mystical augurs, heightening the mysterious and dream-like atmosphere of this enchanting painting.
In La famille, the couple are the musician and the woman, and they are here presented as young parents. The woman appears as both lover and Madonna, with her breast visible underneath her dress. The latter association is made all the more apparent because she has been placed as though seated side-saddle on a donkey. Despite being a Jewish artist, Chagall found the iconography of Christianity a rich source of inspiration. Indeed, he sometimes explored his own Jewish identity through Christian themes. In a sense, this picture recalls the story of the Flight into Egypt, yet is filled with a levity and musicality that speak not of flight, but instead of comfort, of happiness and of love.
There is a combination of nostalgia, of thoughts of lovers, wives and mothers in this figure of a woman, but the point that is most emphasised in La famille is that of earthly pleasures. The picture is filled with music, with flowers, even with wine at the table behind the couple. Yet there is something that is unearthly about this vision. It is filled with figures and elements that appear to have strayed from the dreams of the artist and onto the canvas, introducing the viewer to Chagall's own mind and associations, to a private universe filled with memory, fantasy and whimsy. Strange creatures and not least a double-headed rider appear here like some mystical augurs, heightening the mysterious and dream-like atmosphere of this enchanting painting.