Lot Essay
In June 1914 Chagall unveiled in an exhibition at the Der Sturm gallery in Berlin, a painting that celebrated his emigration from Russia to Paris and his successful immersion in the European avant-garde. Its title Hommage Apollinaire, Walden, Cendrars, Canudo (coll. Stedelijk van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven), placed him in the forefront of this group by acknowledging his friendship with its leaders. Ricciotto Canudo was the editor of the leading cultural magazine Montjoie!; Blaise Cendrars was an accomplished poet; Herwath Walden the director of Der Sturm gallery that introduced vanguard French art to Berlin. Guillaume Apollinaire was a poet and the acknowledged impresario of the Parisian avante-garde.
Known today more simply as Hommage Apollinaire, this painting was especially intended to acknowledge Chagall's debt to Apollinaire, who had introduced him to the other honorees. In Ma Vie, Chagall recounted the poet's first visit to his studio and the creative interchange it sparked:
"I don't dare show my paintings to Apollinaire. I know, you're the inspirer of cubism. But I want to do something else What else? It's embarassing. We cross the dark hallway where water drips endlessly and piles of garbage are lying about. A circular stairwell; a dozen doors with numbers on them. I open mine. Apollinaire enters cautiously as if he fears the whole building might crumble and drag him down to the ruins...Apollinaire takes a seat. He blushes, smiles and murmurs: 'Supernatural!...' The next day I receive a letter, a poem dedicated to me." (M. Chagall, Ma Vie, Paris, 1957, pp. 159-161).
Later published as A travers L'Europe in Calligrammes (Paris, 1918), the poem is filled with soaring figures and fantastic transformations drawn from Chagall's imagery.
This watercolor, which was unknown to art historians until its 1984 exhibition in the Centre Pompidou, is the most complete extant study for the painting. It depicts the painting's central motif -- a hermaphrodite (based on the biblical account of Adam and Eve) with clear references to the chronology and geography of the twentieth century. The disk inscribed with numerals suggests the rapid passage of time, and the diagonal lines connecting the words "Paris" and "Russie" link disparate locations. This last element clearly refers to Chagall's rail trip from his native Russia to his adopted home in Paris, yet the emigrant status also applied to Apollinaire, who was born in Italy and had not yet become a French citizen. While probably embodying certain mystical ideas, the hermaphroditic figure may recall the ambivalent sexuality of many characters in Apollinaire's verse and, more obviously, the union of individuals in a bond of friendship to which the title alludes.
On the reverse of this watercolor is a study for the painting Golgotha, 1912 (coll. Museum of Modern Art, New York), which is inscribed by Chagall, "Landscape of blood and death." This subject reinforces the Biblical source of the imagery on both sides of the sheet.
A photo-certificate from the Comit Chagall dated St. Paul, 8 April 1993 accompanies this watercolor.
Known today more simply as Hommage Apollinaire, this painting was especially intended to acknowledge Chagall's debt to Apollinaire, who had introduced him to the other honorees. In Ma Vie, Chagall recounted the poet's first visit to his studio and the creative interchange it sparked:
"I don't dare show my paintings to Apollinaire. I know, you're the inspirer of cubism. But I want to do something else What else? It's embarassing. We cross the dark hallway where water drips endlessly and piles of garbage are lying about. A circular stairwell; a dozen doors with numbers on them. I open mine. Apollinaire enters cautiously as if he fears the whole building might crumble and drag him down to the ruins...Apollinaire takes a seat. He blushes, smiles and murmurs: 'Supernatural!...' The next day I receive a letter, a poem dedicated to me." (M. Chagall, Ma Vie, Paris, 1957, pp. 159-161).
Later published as A travers L'Europe in Calligrammes (Paris, 1918), the poem is filled with soaring figures and fantastic transformations drawn from Chagall's imagery.
This watercolor, which was unknown to art historians until its 1984 exhibition in the Centre Pompidou, is the most complete extant study for the painting. It depicts the painting's central motif -- a hermaphrodite (based on the biblical account of Adam and Eve) with clear references to the chronology and geography of the twentieth century. The disk inscribed with numerals suggests the rapid passage of time, and the diagonal lines connecting the words "Paris" and "Russie" link disparate locations. This last element clearly refers to Chagall's rail trip from his native Russia to his adopted home in Paris, yet the emigrant status also applied to Apollinaire, who was born in Italy and had not yet become a French citizen. While probably embodying certain mystical ideas, the hermaphroditic figure may recall the ambivalent sexuality of many characters in Apollinaire's verse and, more obviously, the union of individuals in a bond of friendship to which the title alludes.
On the reverse of this watercolor is a study for the painting Golgotha, 1912 (coll. Museum of Modern Art, New York), which is inscribed by Chagall, "Landscape of blood and death." This subject reinforces the Biblical source of the imagery on both sides of the sheet.
A photo-certificate from the Comit Chagall dated St. Paul, 8 April 1993 accompanies this watercolor.