Marc Chagall *
(Vitebsk 1887–1985 Saint Paul de Vence)
Esquisse pour La neige, 1951, signature stamp, gouache, India ink and pencil on paper, 34 x 27.2 cm, framed
This work has been registered by the Comité Marc Chagall, Paris, and is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by Jean-Louis Prat (Paris, 13 December 2002).
Provenance:
The Estate of the artist
Private Collection, France
Private Collection, Portugal
In Esquisse pour La neige (1951), Marc Chagall evokes a dreamlike world where reality, imagination and childhood memories intertwine. A mono chrome nocturnal scene unfolds amid vibrant geometric patches of red, yellow, green and blue, creating a playful contrast between drawing and colour. Reflecting on his childhood, Chagall recalled: “Lines, angles, triangles, squares carried me far away to enchanting horizons.”
Familiar motifs emerge from this imaginary landscape: a beloved couple, a bouquet of flowers, and what appears to be his childhood village of Vitebsk. Other elements reveal themselves only upon closer inspection, such as a large cow covered by the red patch, seemingly watching over the nocturnal scene. The figures and forms, rendered in shifting proportions and unconstrained by conventional perspective, appear to float between the tangible world and the artist’s inner landscape.
Created in 1951, the work belongs to the period following Chagall’s return to France after spending the Second World War in the United States. Settling in Vence, in the south of France, he developed an increasingly free and poetic visual language, bringing together memories, animals and human figures in an imaginary world.
Specialist: Mag. Patricia Pálffy
(Vitebsk 1887–1985 Saint Paul de Vence)
Esquisse pour La neige, 1951, signature stamp, gouache, India ink and pencil on paper, 34 x 27.2 cm, framed
This work has been registered by the Comité Marc Chagall, Paris, and is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by Jean-Louis Prat (Paris, 13 December 2002).
Provenance:
The Estate of the artist
Private Collection, France
Private Collection, Portugal
In Esquisse pour La neige (1951), Marc Chagall evokes a dreamlike world where reality, imagination and childhood memories intertwine. A mono chrome nocturnal scene unfolds amid vibrant geometric patches of red, yellow, green and blue, creating a playful contrast between drawing and colour. Reflecting on his childhood, Chagall recalled: “Lines, angles, triangles, squares carried me far away to enchanting horizons.”
Familiar motifs emerge from this imaginary landscape: a beloved couple, a bouquet of flowers, and what appears to be his childhood village of Vitebsk. Other elements reveal themselves only upon closer inspection, such as a large cow covered by the red patch, seemingly watching over the nocturnal scene. The figures and forms, rendered in shifting proportions and unconstrained by conventional perspective, appear to float between the tangible world and the artist’s inner landscape.
Created in 1951, the work belongs to the period following Chagall’s return to France after spending the Second World War in the United States. Settling in Vence, in the south of France, he developed an increasingly free and poetic visual language, bringing together memories, animals and human figures in an imaginary world.
Specialist: Mag. Patricia Pálffy
