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Lot Essay
This work is sold with a photo-certificate from David McNeil.
Through his friend Grigory Goldeberg and his art studies, Chagall was introduced to other significant art collectors and patrons, such as Leopold Sev, whose recommendation led Chagall to be accepted to the Zvanseva School by Léon Semjolovitch Bakst (fig. 1). This institution was founded in Moscow by the painter Elisabeth Nikolaievna Zvanseva as an anti-academic art school, when she returned from Paris. Bakst, an adept of contemporary artistic trends, was hired as a teacher once the school had been transferred to St. Petersburg. He pursued Zvanseva's ambition of promoting modern art, finally enabling Chagall to find artistic freedom. Bakst's major contribution to Chagall's artistic development was a new understanding of colour, which was to become one of the most important characteristics in Chagall's oeuvre.
This drawing again shows Chagall's fascination in watching other students sketching the standing nude in the background in one of the studios of Bakst's school. Bakst would visit the school once a week to examine the students' achievements. A fellow student recalled one of Bakst's visits in her memoirs, 'If the model, posing in front of a certain background, came to be of a greenish tonality, Chagall would transform her into a vibrant green. Bakst passed by in his usual way and exclaimed, "I gave you a young graceful girl for model... and you have drawn a nymph from the seas"' (from the manuscript of S.I. Dymsisc-Tolstaja, preserved in the Russian State Museum of Leningrad, Manuscript Collection, file 249, p. 10).
(fig. 1) Léon Bakst; © DACS, London 2007.
DIVIDER:
Chagall and Bella in August 1934; (Photo: Lipnitzki-Viollet, Paris).
Through his friend Grigory Goldeberg and his art studies, Chagall was introduced to other significant art collectors and patrons, such as Leopold Sev, whose recommendation led Chagall to be accepted to the Zvanseva School by Léon Semjolovitch Bakst (fig. 1). This institution was founded in Moscow by the painter Elisabeth Nikolaievna Zvanseva as an anti-academic art school, when she returned from Paris. Bakst, an adept of contemporary artistic trends, was hired as a teacher once the school had been transferred to St. Petersburg. He pursued Zvanseva's ambition of promoting modern art, finally enabling Chagall to find artistic freedom. Bakst's major contribution to Chagall's artistic development was a new understanding of colour, which was to become one of the most important characteristics in Chagall's oeuvre.
This drawing again shows Chagall's fascination in watching other students sketching the standing nude in the background in one of the studios of Bakst's school. Bakst would visit the school once a week to examine the students' achievements. A fellow student recalled one of Bakst's visits in her memoirs, 'If the model, posing in front of a certain background, came to be of a greenish tonality, Chagall would transform her into a vibrant green. Bakst passed by in his usual way and exclaimed, "I gave you a young graceful girl for model... and you have drawn a nymph from the seas"' (from the manuscript of S.I. Dymsisc-Tolstaja, preserved in the Russian State Museum of Leningrad, Manuscript Collection, file 249, p. 10).
(fig. 1) Léon Bakst; © DACS, London 2007.
DIVIDER:
Chagall and Bella in August 1934; (Photo: Lipnitzki-Viollet, Paris).