Still life, 1981 tempera on panel 31.70 x 41.50 cm (12 ¼ x 16 ¼ in.) signed by the artist lower right and on the reverse PROVENANCE: Estate of the Artist Private collection USA comite Marc chagall has kindly confirmed the authenticity of this work. Accompanied by certificate of Authenticiy dated 30 August 1989 Throughout his career, Marc chagall consistently turned to still life paintings not as rigorous studies in realism, but rather as expressive evocations of fantasy. The motive of the fruit basket is one of his earlier motives. Present already in the first Parisian period in 1910 / 11 (still - life , 1911. Meyer no. 51), it represents the abundance of Parisian life in comparison to the relative poverty of village life in Russia. As such it is a recurring theme in his oeuvre, particularly from 1926 onwards, almost always depicted with a flower bouquet and a window behind it, sometimes with the married couple hovering in the room as if representing a wish for happiness (?flower bouquet before window', 1929. Meyer no. 531 and 547, 681, 683) The late ?still life with pears' from 1980 is one of those rare examples in chagall's works in which the fruit basket is the center of the attention in the painting. carefully set on a brown table, the relatively detailed basket in which are set pears and apples, would seem at first sight to be a study in realism, so much so that it would remind us of courbet's ?fruit basket before window' , 1871. But it is not the realism of fruit or the straw - basket borrowed from courbet that interests chagall. The artist takes up the excuse of depicting fruit to submerge the painting in a green expressive coloring, in a way which is reminiscent of the paintings undertaken when he first met his second wife Vava in the late 1950s which were bathed in red. The use of the green color creates, in contrast to his earlier reds and yellows, a soothing atmosphere in which the lovers (to which the upper most pear points to) seem to hug hesitatingly and not with the usual warmth. Is it old age creeping in or just chagall's conscious understanding that the days of sturm und Drang are over and there is also place for a style in which old formulas can be reworked in a more sedate and rational way and to which the watercolor technique would be more adapted. In this light, the irony of placing the all too familiar red flower bouquet at the far end of the room, half hidden by the basket can't escape us. oren Migdal
Still life, 1981 tempera on panel 31.70 x 41.50 cm (12 ¼ x 16 ¼ in.) signed by the artist lower right and on the reverse PROVENANCE: Estate of the Artist Private collection USA comite Marc chagall has kindly confirmed the authenticity of this work. Accompanied by certificate of Authenticiy dated 30 August 1989 Throughout his career, Marc chagall consistently turned to still life paintings not as rigorous studies in realism, but rather as expressive evocations of fantasy. The motive of the fruit basket is one of his earlier motives. Present already in the first Parisian period in 1910 / 11 (still - life , 1911. Meyer no. 51), it represents the abundance of Parisian life in comparison to the relative poverty of village life in Russia. As such it is a recurring theme in his oeuvre, particularly from 1926 onwards, almost always depicted with a flower bouquet and a window behind it, sometimes with the married couple hovering in the room as if representing a wish for happiness (?flower bouquet before window', 1929. Meyer no. 531 and 547, 681, 683) The late ?still life with pears' from 1980 is one of those rare examples in chagall's works in which the fruit basket is the center of the attention in the painting. carefully set on a brown table, the relatively detailed basket in which are set pears and apples, would seem at first sight to be a study in realism, so much so that it would remind us of courbet's ?fruit basket before window' , 1871. But it is not the realism of fruit or the straw - basket borrowed from courbet that interests chagall. The artist takes up the excuse of depicting fruit to submerge the painting in a green expressive coloring, in a way which is reminiscent of the paintings undertaken when he first met his second wife Vava in the late 1950s which were bathed in red. The use of the green color creates, in contrast to his earlier reds and yellows, a soothing atmosphere in which the lovers (to which the upper most pear points to) seem to hug hesitatingly and not with the usual warmth. Is it old age creeping in or just chagall's conscious understanding that the days of sturm und Drang are over and there is also place for a style in which old formulas can be reworked in a more sedate and rational way and to which the watercolor technique would be more adapted. In this light, the irony of placing the all too familiar red flower bouquet at the far end of the room, half hidden by the basket can't escape us. oren Migdal
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
