Until the end of the summer, Sotheby's is offering a selection of 22 works by Chagall, created while he was living in Saint-Paul de Vence. The sale highlights the painter's joie de vivre and the landscapes of southern France. The 'Chagall, Dreams of Colour' exhibition will run until September 15 in Monaco.
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Marc Chagall was born on July 7, 1887 in Vitebsk, Belarus, into a Jewish family. In 1907, he applied to the St Petersburg School of Drawing, but then opted for a more modern public school. In 1910, he moved to Paris, before acquiring French nationality in 1937. When the Second World War broke out, he fled to the United States with his family. On his return to France in 1948, he settled in Vence, where he rediscovered the light and landscapes that had so enchanted him.
There, in the south, for the first time in my life, I saw this rich greenery – the like of which I had never seen in my own country.
The painter fell in love with the South of France on his very first visit, and until his death in 1985, he would prove his love for Provence by producing works full of life and rich, vivid colours, so characteristic of the South of France. Dreamy and seductive, Chagall's characters take us with them on a journey through lavender fields, pine forests and the scorching sun of village afternoons.
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Chagall's favorite motifs are depicted throughout his oeuvre: the bouquet of flowers, the donkey, and the moon, in a palette reminiscent of Mediterranean light. Grand profil et nu rose ('Large profile and pink nude') is a perfect example: the painting depicts two figures, almost embracing, full of tenderness, who seem submerged in the water of the Mediterranean. Juxtaposed on the same canvas are swimmers, a still life (bouquet of flowers and bowl of fruit), a nude, a donkey, and the village in the background: a composition that acts as a declaration of love for the South of France.
Another masterpiece, La Sirène au Poète ('The Siren to the Poet'), produced in preparation for a lithograph in 1967, also depicts two figures in love looking at each other. The primary colors remain bright and contrasting. These works perfectly describe the dreamlike world, populated by joyful and often spiritual characters, that inspired Chagall's creative process throughout his life.
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Le faisan dans l'atelier de Saint-Paul ('The pheasant in the studio at Saint-Paul') is another example of life in the south of France. Still lifes, one of Chagall's favorite subjects, seem ideal for showing the mildness of life in Saint-Paul de Vence, which the painter enjoyed to the full: he could be found sitting on café terraces enjoying the mild Provencal climate.
Much of his work is now housed in the Musée National Marc Chagall in Nice, created in 1973 and designed by the artist himself. The museum houses mosaics, stained glass, sculptures and drawings, making it the largest collection of works by Chagall in the world.