La fée

Details

Marc Chagall (1887-1985)
La fée
signed 'Chagall' (lower right)
brush and India ink on paper
11 x 9 in. (28 x 23 cm.)
Executed circa 1925

Provenance

David McNeil (the artist's son), Paris, by descent from the artist (no. D 2984).
Acquired from the above by the present owners in 1987.

Literature

V. Rakitin, Chagall, Disegni inediti dalla Russia a Parigi, Milan, 1989, p. 106 (ill. p. 107).

Exhibited

Milan, Studio Marconi, Marc Chagall, Disegni inediti dalla Russia a Parigi, May - July 1988; this exhibition later travelled to Turin, Galleria della Sindone, Palazzo Reale, Dec. 1990 - Mar. 1991; Catania, Monastero dei Benedettini, Oct.- Nov. 1994; Meina, Museo e centro studi per il disegno, June - Aug. 1996.
Hannover, Sprengel Museum, Marc Chagall, "Himmel und Erde", Dec. 1996 - Feb. 1997.
Darmstadt, Institut Mathildenhöhe, Marc Chagall, Von Russland nach Paris, Zeichnungen 1906-1967, Dec. 1997 - Jan. 1998.
Abbazia Olivetana, Fondazione Ambrosetti, Marc Chagall, Il messaggio biblico, May - July 1998, p. 28 (ill.).
Klagenfurt, Stadtgalerie, Marc Chagall, Feb.- May 2000, p. 51 (ill.).
Florida, Boca Raton Museum of Art, Chagall, Jan.- Mar. 2002.

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 15% on the buyer's premium

Lot Essay

This work is sold with a photo-certificate from David McNeil.

The present drawing bears a comparable spontaneity in its execution to that of L'homme à la pipe assis (lot 629). Difficult to decipher, the subject is a fairy lying down, contemplating the sky and possibly in the process of performing some magic powers, as signalled by her raised arm. The black moon or sun behind the fairy is worrying and unnatural, but it insinuates the supernatural world which the fairy is part of. Chagall creates a mysterious and slightly tense drawing, always retaining a comical hint to point out the joyful nature of the fairy.

DIVIDER:
Marc Chagall in his studio, c. 1945.

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