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Lot Essay
This work is sold with a photo-certificate from David McNeil.
After his short apprenticeship at Jehuda Pen's painting school, Chagall and his close friend Viktor Mekler moved to St. Petersburg in the winter of 1906. Jews required a resident permit to work and live in the city, but with the help of Grigory Goldberg, a patron of arts, Chagall was accepted at an art school. He joined the Imperial Society for the Promotion of the Arts led by Nikolai Roerich, reknowned for the designs he made for Sergeï Diaghilev (1872-1929). This school was considered to be liberal, although students sought the traditional principles of drawing in order to pass the exams for the academy.
Chagall preferred to draw in his own style and he much criticised the traditional drawing of 'numerous plaster heads of Greek and Roman citizens projected from every corner and I, poor provincial, had to pore over the wretched nostrils of Alexander of Macedon - or some other plaster idiot' (My Life, p. 81). The young artist showed more interest in representing his fellow students drawing the model, rather than copying the model itself, as is clearly reflected in the present work. With a caricatural hint, Chagall depicts the serious students, occasionally enhancing individual traits.
Marc's skills as a draughtsman singled him out amongst the four best students of the school and he was awarded a small scholarship. However, some teachers criticised his anti-academic attitude, leading Chagall to leave Roerich's school in July 1908.
After his short apprenticeship at Jehuda Pen's painting school, Chagall and his close friend Viktor Mekler moved to St. Petersburg in the winter of 1906. Jews required a resident permit to work and live in the city, but with the help of Grigory Goldberg, a patron of arts, Chagall was accepted at an art school. He joined the Imperial Society for the Promotion of the Arts led by Nikolai Roerich, reknowned for the designs he made for Sergeï Diaghilev (1872-1929). This school was considered to be liberal, although students sought the traditional principles of drawing in order to pass the exams for the academy.
Chagall preferred to draw in his own style and he much criticised the traditional drawing of 'numerous plaster heads of Greek and Roman citizens projected from every corner and I, poor provincial, had to pore over the wretched nostrils of Alexander of Macedon - or some other plaster idiot' (My Life, p. 81). The young artist showed more interest in representing his fellow students drawing the model, rather than copying the model itself, as is clearly reflected in the present work. With a caricatural hint, Chagall depicts the serious students, occasionally enhancing individual traits.
Marc's skills as a draughtsman singled him out amongst the four best students of the school and he was awarded a small scholarship. However, some teachers criticised his anti-academic attitude, leading Chagall to leave Roerich's school in July 1908.