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Lot Essay
Marc Chagall’s breathtaking work, Le cirque, is a critical piece in the artist’s oeuvre which explores the phantasmagorical realm of the circus. Painted in 1974, the work dates from the zenith of the artist’s career, while he was living in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, on the Côte d’Azur. Trapeze artists, jugglers and saltimbanques take centre stage in the visual imagery of this epoch, representing the fantastical atmosphere of the circus as a profound metaphor for the joys and tribulations of life. Chagall frequented the Cirque d’Hiver in Paris with the art dealer, Ambroise Vollard, serving as a catalyst for the creation of works such as Le cirque.
The circus theme was recurrent in Chagall’s creative output, first appearing in his work as early as 1908, and the subject had similarly entranced a number of artists, from Georges Seurat and Edgar Degas to Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Fernand Léger. Yet, for the French writer and intellectual, Louis Aragon, the distinction between Chagall’s renderings of the circus and those of his predecessors was the artist’s remarkable ability to invoke the physical feeling of being in the audience: ‘only in Chagall do all the senses play a prominent role’ (‘Chagall’s Circus’, in Chagall: A Retrospective, exh. cat., New York, 1995, p. 196). There is an episodic element to the composition, the performers further fragmented into vignettes by the play of colour. Through the fluid juxtaposition of these microcosmic scenes, Chagall transcends time, bringing together a multitude of different performances, or segments of the circus show.
In the present work, Chagall reflects on the role of the trapeze artist standing on an ambiguous creature at the heart of the circular circus arena, often daring thrilling and awe-inspiring stunts and balancing acts. The artist’s symbolism and imagery is infused with a sense of elevation; the figures in his circus series always seem to defy gravity in some capacity and are rendered in a state of poetic suspension. Such depictions reveal the topsy-turvy atmosphere of the circus, which Chagall described as a ‘magic show that appears and disappears like a world. A circus is disturbing. It is profound.’ (quoted in J. Baal-Teshuva, Chagall: A Retrospective, New York, 1995, p. 196). Here he places emphasis on the itinerant lifestyle of the travelling circus and highlights the often fragmentary and nostalgic memories of childhood visits to performances. Such themes had also inspired Pablo Picasso during his Rose Period, who frequently attended shows at the Cirque Médrano in Montmartre, Paris.
The central figure in Le cirque appears to balance on the back of a horse or goat, key animal imagery across Chagall’s oeuvre, alluding to the artist’s nostalgic meditations on his childhood in the village of Vitebsk, Russia. Beauty lies in the boundless possibilities of Chagall’s imagination and the endless perspectives that his masterful works encapsulate. The balletic pose of the performer, with her arms raised holding a hoop, conveys the elegance of Chagall’s skilful hand. His circus themed works are highly sought after and prized for their mesmerising colour palettes and rich imagery. The meta-theatrical resonances of Le cirque, coupled with the mellifluousness of the scene and the serenity of the performer, imbue the work with a lyrical quality, quintessential to Chagall’s oneiric visual lexicon.
Numerous worlds seem to collide in Le cirque, in a symphony of vibrant colours and rhythmic brushstrokes, demonstrating Chagall’s reflections on nature and life. The vibrant orange-red hues and passages of aqueous blues are deeply complimentary and infuse this scene with a dynamic ambience. This painting serves as a crystallisation of the artist’s creative voice, where life, nature, animals and humans are in symbiosis. For Chagall, the circus offered a mirror for life itself, a harmonious fusion of fantasy and reality, joy and sorrow, and comedy and tragedy in a way that paralleled human existence.
Chagall found himself repeatedly drawn to the enduring and beguiling appeal of the circus characters, whom he felt were the heralds of an enchanting dream world. ‘These clowns, bareback riders and acrobats have made themselves at home in my visions. Why? Why am I so touched by their make-up and grimaces? With them I can move toward new horizons. Lured by their colours and make-up I dream of painting new psychic distortions’ (‘The Circus’, 1967; in ibid., p. 197). Executed in a symphony of colour and light, Marc Chagall’s Le cirque, therefore radiates with a sense of magic and joy. His paintings from this time are dreamlike and joyous, with expressive, dancing brushstrokes. The jewel-toned shades in this painting tesselate across the canvas, the swathes of colour dappled like theatre spotlights, enhancing the feeling of spectacle and performance in this circus scene.
The circus theme was recurrent in Chagall’s creative output, first appearing in his work as early as 1908, and the subject had similarly entranced a number of artists, from Georges Seurat and Edgar Degas to Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Fernand Léger. Yet, for the French writer and intellectual, Louis Aragon, the distinction between Chagall’s renderings of the circus and those of his predecessors was the artist’s remarkable ability to invoke the physical feeling of being in the audience: ‘only in Chagall do all the senses play a prominent role’ (‘Chagall’s Circus’, in Chagall: A Retrospective, exh. cat., New York, 1995, p. 196). There is an episodic element to the composition, the performers further fragmented into vignettes by the play of colour. Through the fluid juxtaposition of these microcosmic scenes, Chagall transcends time, bringing together a multitude of different performances, or segments of the circus show.
In the present work, Chagall reflects on the role of the trapeze artist standing on an ambiguous creature at the heart of the circular circus arena, often daring thrilling and awe-inspiring stunts and balancing acts. The artist’s symbolism and imagery is infused with a sense of elevation; the figures in his circus series always seem to defy gravity in some capacity and are rendered in a state of poetic suspension. Such depictions reveal the topsy-turvy atmosphere of the circus, which Chagall described as a ‘magic show that appears and disappears like a world. A circus is disturbing. It is profound.’ (quoted in J. Baal-Teshuva, Chagall: A Retrospective, New York, 1995, p. 196). Here he places emphasis on the itinerant lifestyle of the travelling circus and highlights the often fragmentary and nostalgic memories of childhood visits to performances. Such themes had also inspired Pablo Picasso during his Rose Period, who frequently attended shows at the Cirque Médrano in Montmartre, Paris.
The central figure in Le cirque appears to balance on the back of a horse or goat, key animal imagery across Chagall’s oeuvre, alluding to the artist’s nostalgic meditations on his childhood in the village of Vitebsk, Russia. Beauty lies in the boundless possibilities of Chagall’s imagination and the endless perspectives that his masterful works encapsulate. The balletic pose of the performer, with her arms raised holding a hoop, conveys the elegance of Chagall’s skilful hand. His circus themed works are highly sought after and prized for their mesmerising colour palettes and rich imagery. The meta-theatrical resonances of Le cirque, coupled with the mellifluousness of the scene and the serenity of the performer, imbue the work with a lyrical quality, quintessential to Chagall’s oneiric visual lexicon.
Numerous worlds seem to collide in Le cirque, in a symphony of vibrant colours and rhythmic brushstrokes, demonstrating Chagall’s reflections on nature and life. The vibrant orange-red hues and passages of aqueous blues are deeply complimentary and infuse this scene with a dynamic ambience. This painting serves as a crystallisation of the artist’s creative voice, where life, nature, animals and humans are in symbiosis. For Chagall, the circus offered a mirror for life itself, a harmonious fusion of fantasy and reality, joy and sorrow, and comedy and tragedy in a way that paralleled human existence.
Chagall found himself repeatedly drawn to the enduring and beguiling appeal of the circus characters, whom he felt were the heralds of an enchanting dream world. ‘These clowns, bareback riders and acrobats have made themselves at home in my visions. Why? Why am I so touched by their make-up and grimaces? With them I can move toward new horizons. Lured by their colours and make-up I dream of painting new psychic distortions’ (‘The Circus’, 1967; in ibid., p. 197). Executed in a symphony of colour and light, Marc Chagall’s Le cirque, therefore radiates with a sense of magic and joy. His paintings from this time are dreamlike and joyous, with expressive, dancing brushstrokes. The jewel-toned shades in this painting tesselate across the canvas, the swathes of colour dappled like theatre spotlights, enhancing the feeling of spectacle and performance in this circus scene.