Le mariage

Details

Marc Chagall (1887-1985)
Le mariage
signed 'Chagall' (lower left)
brush and India ink on paper
8½ x 4¾ in. (21.6 x 12.1 cm.)
Executed circa 1940-1950

Provenance

David McNeil (the artist's son), Paris, by descent from the artist (no. D 1627).
Acquired from the above by the present owners in 1987.

Literature

V. Rakitin, Chagall, Disegni inediti dalla Russia a Parigi, Milan, 1989, p. 126 (ill. p. 127).

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.
Klagenfurt, Stadtgalerie, Marc Chagall, Feb. - May 2000, p. 55 (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.

A few dark lines are enough for Chagall to depict the wedding of this romantic couple, floating in a dream-world. Brides and swooning married couples regularly appear in Chagall's paintings, completing Chagall's passion for love themes.

Weddings fascinated Chagall since his childhood, as he describes at length in My Life the procedure of traditional wedding ceremonies in provincial Russia (pp. 35-36), as well as remembering all the details of his own wedding in 1915 with Bella. Chagall was drawn by the pure bond of love and the intensity of emotions implied in the wedding celebration.

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