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Lot Essay
This work is sold with a photo-certificate from the Comité Marc Chagall.
As early as 1907, Chagall painted his first self-portrait at the age of twenty (M 1; Private collection). By 1909, he had already adopted the pose of a painter, clearly conscious of his skills (M 24; Alport Collection, Oxford). Chagall pursued this type of self-representation throughout his career, of which the present drawing is a late example, dating from 1973. In Le peintre à la veste orange, the artist places himself at the centre of the composition whilst the whimsical elements of the Chagallian world revolve around him. A swooning pink rooster, back to back with the artist, a female nude with red hair, a green donkey and Chagall's easel supporting a flower-painting, not only have a structural role within the drawing, but they are more importantly the inspirational sources of Chagall's creativity. Themes of love, animals and flowers recur throughout Chagall's works and in the present lot, they are represented as Chagall's faithful artistic companions.
The flamboyant pink rooster daringly juxtaposed to the artist's fiery orange-red blouse, both set up against a luminous blue firmament, display in all its glory Chagall's legendary mastery of colour. The dominant blue, red, pink and green jewel-like surfaces in the drawing, mirror Chagall's work in other media at the time, mainly stained glass windows and mosaics, such as the windows he did for the Metz Cathedral in 1968, those for the Fraumunster Kirche in Zurich or the ensemble executed for the Musée national Message Biblique of Nice in 1972. In Le peintre à la veste orange, Chagall celebrates the role of colour in his oeuvre, yet he also portrays himself as a creator, proudly pointing out his finished luscious flower painting on the easel.
Despite Chagall's habit of including hybrid half-man half-animal creatures, he nonetheless chooses here to clearly separate the animal world with that of the human, or rather the artist's. With the back of his head almost fusing with that of the pink rooster's, Chagall states his role as a creator of nature, as a counterpart to the animal world. In many of Chagall's self-portraits as a painter holding his palette in front of an easel, the crucified Christ is present in the scene, yet in this late composition of 1973, he omits the Christ figure, as he focuses on his own role as creator of masterpieces and procreator of his extraordinary dreamy world. At the same time, Chagall pays homage to the swirling characters, who are at the root of his unique artistic conception and of his success as an artist.
As early as 1907, Chagall painted his first self-portrait at the age of twenty (M 1; Private collection). By 1909, he had already adopted the pose of a painter, clearly conscious of his skills (M 24; Alport Collection, Oxford). Chagall pursued this type of self-representation throughout his career, of which the present drawing is a late example, dating from 1973. In Le peintre à la veste orange, the artist places himself at the centre of the composition whilst the whimsical elements of the Chagallian world revolve around him. A swooning pink rooster, back to back with the artist, a female nude with red hair, a green donkey and Chagall's easel supporting a flower-painting, not only have a structural role within the drawing, but they are more importantly the inspirational sources of Chagall's creativity. Themes of love, animals and flowers recur throughout Chagall's works and in the present lot, they are represented as Chagall's faithful artistic companions.
The flamboyant pink rooster daringly juxtaposed to the artist's fiery orange-red blouse, both set up against a luminous blue firmament, display in all its glory Chagall's legendary mastery of colour. The dominant blue, red, pink and green jewel-like surfaces in the drawing, mirror Chagall's work in other media at the time, mainly stained glass windows and mosaics, such as the windows he did for the Metz Cathedral in 1968, those for the Fraumunster Kirche in Zurich or the ensemble executed for the Musée national Message Biblique of Nice in 1972. In Le peintre à la veste orange, Chagall celebrates the role of colour in his oeuvre, yet he also portrays himself as a creator, proudly pointing out his finished luscious flower painting on the easel.
Despite Chagall's habit of including hybrid half-man half-animal creatures, he nonetheless chooses here to clearly separate the animal world with that of the human, or rather the artist's. With the back of his head almost fusing with that of the pink rooster's, Chagall states his role as a creator of nature, as a counterpart to the animal world. In many of Chagall's self-portraits as a painter holding his palette in front of an easel, the crucified Christ is present in the scene, yet in this late composition of 1973, he omits the Christ figure, as he focuses on his own role as creator of masterpieces and procreator of his extraordinary dreamy world. At the same time, Chagall pays homage to the swirling characters, who are at the root of his unique artistic conception and of his success as an artist.