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Lot Essay
This work is sold with a photo-certificate from David McNeil. (The certificate wrongly gives the medium India ink).
Whilst he was studying in St. Petersburg in 1909, Chagall often visited his home in Vitebsk. Through his good friend Thea Brachmann, the cultivated and intelligent daughter of a doctor, Chagall discovered the educated middle-class and avant-garde intellectuals. More importantly, in the autumn of 1909, Thea introduced the young artist to her best friend, Bella Rosenfeld (1895-1944), who studied in Moscow and who was the daughter of a successful jeweller.
Chagall fell in love with the young girl and he remembered in detail his first encounter with Bella, his soul-mate, 'Her silence is mine. Her eyes, mine. It's as if she had known me for a long time, and knew all my childhood, my present, and my future; as if she had been watching over me, reading my inmost thoughts, although I have never seen her before. I know that this was she - my wife. Her pale face, her eyes. How big, round and black they are. They are my eyes, my soul' (My Life, p. 77). Marc and Bella were married after the artist's return to Russia from his first trip to Paris in July 1915.
Bella quickly became Chagall's inspirational muse for his lyrical paintings depicting lovers throughout his oeuvre. His first portrait of Bella dates from 1909, entitled Ma fiancée aux gants noirs (M 80; Kunstmuseum, Basel), and she continued to appear in Chagall's paintings till her death in 1944. The present drawing was executed in 1920, a difficult year for Chagall, when he left the art school he had founded in Vitebsk, disagreeing with the other members' artistic theories. In this sensual portrait of his beloved wife, Chagall's worries are put aside and he focuses solely on his feelings, memories and intimate relationship with Bella. The memory of 'the smell of the first kiss', the way Bella spoke 'like a young Jewish spouse' with 'her words like the lines of a drawing' permanently echoed in Chagall's mind. Her husband seems to have surprised her in the present lot, as she turns around with a questioning gaze catching the artist's eye. Two works are closely related to this portrait, Bella de profil, 1915 (M 250; Ida-Meyer Collection, Basel) and Bella au châle, 1914 (M 240), in which Chagall captures again his beautiful wife's offguard look.
After 1923, Chagall took Bella and his daughter Ida on his long artistic journey through Berlin, Paris and finally New York in 1941. Bella suddenly became very ill and died in 1944, just before the couple had planned to go back to Europe. For months after her death, Chagall could not work, 'There was a loud thunderclap and a brief cloudburst about six o'clock in the afternoon of September 2, 1944, when Bella departed from this world... For me all was darkness' (M p. 466). With his daughter's support, Chagall recovered from his mourning and helped Ida to translate Bella's memories Burning Lights from Yiddish into French. Ida hired a French speaking English woman Virginia McNeil to take care of her father. Virginia would become Chagall's next muse until 1951 and she was David McNeil's mother.
(fig. 1) Bella Chagall au col blanc, 1917. Archives Marc et Ida Chagall, Paris; ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2007.
(fig. 2) Marc Chagall, The Lovers in grey, 1916-1917. Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; ©c ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2007.
Whilst he was studying in St. Petersburg in 1909, Chagall often visited his home in Vitebsk. Through his good friend Thea Brachmann, the cultivated and intelligent daughter of a doctor, Chagall discovered the educated middle-class and avant-garde intellectuals. More importantly, in the autumn of 1909, Thea introduced the young artist to her best friend, Bella Rosenfeld (1895-1944), who studied in Moscow and who was the daughter of a successful jeweller.
Chagall fell in love with the young girl and he remembered in detail his first encounter with Bella, his soul-mate, 'Her silence is mine. Her eyes, mine. It's as if she had known me for a long time, and knew all my childhood, my present, and my future; as if she had been watching over me, reading my inmost thoughts, although I have never seen her before. I know that this was she - my wife. Her pale face, her eyes. How big, round and black they are. They are my eyes, my soul' (My Life, p. 77). Marc and Bella were married after the artist's return to Russia from his first trip to Paris in July 1915.
Bella quickly became Chagall's inspirational muse for his lyrical paintings depicting lovers throughout his oeuvre. His first portrait of Bella dates from 1909, entitled Ma fiancée aux gants noirs (M 80; Kunstmuseum, Basel), and she continued to appear in Chagall's paintings till her death in 1944. The present drawing was executed in 1920, a difficult year for Chagall, when he left the art school he had founded in Vitebsk, disagreeing with the other members' artistic theories. In this sensual portrait of his beloved wife, Chagall's worries are put aside and he focuses solely on his feelings, memories and intimate relationship with Bella. The memory of 'the smell of the first kiss', the way Bella spoke 'like a young Jewish spouse' with 'her words like the lines of a drawing' permanently echoed in Chagall's mind. Her husband seems to have surprised her in the present lot, as she turns around with a questioning gaze catching the artist's eye. Two works are closely related to this portrait, Bella de profil, 1915 (M 250; Ida-Meyer Collection, Basel) and Bella au châle, 1914 (M 240), in which Chagall captures again his beautiful wife's offguard look.
After 1923, Chagall took Bella and his daughter Ida on his long artistic journey through Berlin, Paris and finally New York in 1941. Bella suddenly became very ill and died in 1944, just before the couple had planned to go back to Europe. For months after her death, Chagall could not work, 'There was a loud thunderclap and a brief cloudburst about six o'clock in the afternoon of September 2, 1944, when Bella departed from this world... For me all was darkness' (M p. 466). With his daughter's support, Chagall recovered from his mourning and helped Ida to translate Bella's memories Burning Lights from Yiddish into French. Ida hired a French speaking English woman Virginia McNeil to take care of her father. Virginia would become Chagall's next muse until 1951 and she was David McNeil's mother.
(fig. 1) Bella Chagall au col blanc, 1917. Archives Marc et Ida Chagall, Paris; ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2007.
(fig. 2) Marc Chagall, The Lovers in grey, 1916-1917. Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; ©c ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2007.