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Lot Essay
The Comité Marc Chagall has confirmed the authenticity of this painting.
The theme of young lovers, the affianced pair, the bride and groom, or the newlywed couple, is the most frequent subject in Chagall's paintings. There are many variants on this theme, and as befitting the mysteries of human love, and so characteristic of Chagall's work generally, there is rarely a straight-forward or clearly logical narrative behind these paintings. Time has been compressed, and events seem to take place in the haze of memories or dreams, a state whose presence Chagall often signals through the use of a pre-dominantly blue tonality, as seen here.
The couple in the present painting--the copper-haired woman in white and the young man at the right edge of the composition--will no doubt end up as mariés, but the scene here actually appears to depict an event early in their courtship, and may even recall how Chagall met his beloved Bella. Chagall described this occasion in Ma Vie (My Life), published in 1931. He was visiting Thea Brachman, his erstwhile girlfriend, at her home in Vitebsk in October 1909. He lay down on a couch in the consulting room of her father, a doctor. Chagall recounted what happened next:
''I am waiting for her, I lay down there deliberately, so that Thea would come near me, so that she would kiss me. I held out my arms, the arms of salvation. The bell rings. Who is it? It's one of Thea's friends. She comes in. Her voice rings out, she chatters to Thea. I stay in the consulting room. I don't go out. Yes, I did go out, but her friend had her back to me and couldn't see me. She is already saying goodbye to Thea. She hardly looks at me, and goes away. Thea and I go out for a walk. On the bridge we meet her again. She is alone, all alone. Suddenly I feel that I should not be with Thea, but with her! 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 knew that this was she--my wife" (in My Life, London, 1965, pp. 76-77).
Chagall married Bella in 1915, after returning from his first stay in Paris. In the present painting, done more than six decades later, the dark haired woman at left may represent Thea, and the girl in bridal white is Bella. Chagall and Bella have come face-to-face on the bridge over the West Dvina river, which ran through Vitebsk and on whose banks the lovers later held their trysts. "For us the bridge was heaven" Bella recalled in her memoir, which Chagall illustrated and published in 1947, several years after her death. "We escaped to it from cramped homes with low ceilings. On the bridge we could see the sky" (in First Encounter, New York, 1983, p. 215). As they exchange greetings, a magical still-life of flowers, emblematic of their love, hovers overhead. A little goat, which embodies the young man's romantic and sexual impulses, proffers a humble bouquet. The girl holds a small book inscribed 'VIE,' a symbol of the blessing she will bring to his life, and which holds the story of their future life together.
(fig. 1) Chagall and Bella, August 1934. Photo: Lipnitzki-Viollet, Paris. BARCODE 20413057
The theme of young lovers, the affianced pair, the bride and groom, or the newlywed couple, is the most frequent subject in Chagall's paintings. There are many variants on this theme, and as befitting the mysteries of human love, and so characteristic of Chagall's work generally, there is rarely a straight-forward or clearly logical narrative behind these paintings. Time has been compressed, and events seem to take place in the haze of memories or dreams, a state whose presence Chagall often signals through the use of a pre-dominantly blue tonality, as seen here.
The couple in the present painting--the copper-haired woman in white and the young man at the right edge of the composition--will no doubt end up as mariés, but the scene here actually appears to depict an event early in their courtship, and may even recall how Chagall met his beloved Bella. Chagall described this occasion in Ma Vie (My Life), published in 1931. He was visiting Thea Brachman, his erstwhile girlfriend, at her home in Vitebsk in October 1909. He lay down on a couch in the consulting room of her father, a doctor. Chagall recounted what happened next:
''I am waiting for her, I lay down there deliberately, so that Thea would come near me, so that she would kiss me. I held out my arms, the arms of salvation. The bell rings. Who is it? It's one of Thea's friends. She comes in. Her voice rings out, she chatters to Thea. I stay in the consulting room. I don't go out. Yes, I did go out, but her friend had her back to me and couldn't see me. She is already saying goodbye to Thea. She hardly looks at me, and goes away. Thea and I go out for a walk. On the bridge we meet her again. She is alone, all alone. Suddenly I feel that I should not be with Thea, but with her! 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 knew that this was she--my wife" (in My Life, London, 1965, pp. 76-77).
Chagall married Bella in 1915, after returning from his first stay in Paris. In the present painting, done more than six decades later, the dark haired woman at left may represent Thea, and the girl in bridal white is Bella. Chagall and Bella have come face-to-face on the bridge over the West Dvina river, which ran through Vitebsk and on whose banks the lovers later held their trysts. "For us the bridge was heaven" Bella recalled in her memoir, which Chagall illustrated and published in 1947, several years after her death. "We escaped to it from cramped homes with low ceilings. On the bridge we could see the sky" (in First Encounter, New York, 1983, p. 215). As they exchange greetings, a magical still-life of flowers, emblematic of their love, hovers overhead. A little goat, which embodies the young man's romantic and sexual impulses, proffers a humble bouquet. The girl holds a small book inscribed 'VIE,' a symbol of the blessing she will bring to his life, and which holds the story of their future life together.
(fig. 1) Chagall and Bella, August 1934. Photo: Lipnitzki-Viollet, Paris. BARCODE 20413057