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拍品专文
Painted in 1957, Marc Chagall’s La mariée jaune au village is a paean to memory and romantic hope. Lyrical and eloquent, the canvas is replete with many of Chagall's personal motifs, such as a bridal couple in a tender embrace, the lavish bouquet, and a solitary goat hovering languidly above the central town. Across the painting, Chagall used a variety of brushstrokes, from staccato daubs to thicker impasto, adding to the sense of effervescence and wonder. This is particularly evident in the vibrant blossoms that burst against the night sky like a luminous pyrotechnic display. Ever the colourist, a rich red dominates the painting, bathing everything in an otherworldly light, so much so that the entire scene appears to have been wrested from a glorious dream.
In Chagall’s world, love was both his principal artistic subject and guiding light. As he explained, ‘In it lies the true Art: from it comes my technique, my religion. All other things are a sheer waste of energy, waste of means, waste of life, of time... Art, without Love – whether we are ashamed or not to use that well-known word – such a plastic art would open the wrong door’ (quoted in J. Baal-Teshuva, ed., Chagall: A Retrospective, New York, 1995, p. 179). At the time La mariée jaune au village was painted, Chagall had a newfound sense of equilibrium in his personal life, having married Valentina Brodsky, known as Vava, in 1952. A fellow Russian, she was both a poignant reminder of home as well as a joyful companion to the artist, who had suffered immensely following the death of his beloved first wife Bella, née Rosenfeld, in 1944.
Regardless of the passage of time, for Chagall the image of the bride would always be Bella. The couple met in 1909 in Vitebsk, and Chagall always said that for him, it was love at first sight. In his autobiography My Life, he described this intensity of feeling that followed their meeting: ‘Her silence is mine. Her eyes mine. I feel she has known me always, my childhood, my present life, my future; as if she were watching over me, divining my innermost being... I knew this is she, my wife...’ (My Life, London, 2013, p. 77). La mariée jaune au village, accordingly, is bathed in wistful nostalgia, with Chagall and Bella depicted in an eternal embrace. There seems to be a whole universe contained between them, and dressed in yellow, the bride is incandescent. Despite the presence of the moon, she is the light source illuminating all.
Yet this painting is far from elegiac. By 1957, when La mariée jaune au village was created, Chagall was happily living with Vava in Saint-Paul-de-Vence in the South of France and able to consider his life with new clarity. That he painted such a vision of love only speaks to his optimism for the future, a sense reflected in both the imagery and colours of the present work. A blissful feeling of harmony emanates from La mariée jaune au village, qualities that matched Chagall’s life at this juncture. Living and working in Provence, with Vava by his side, he enjoyed days of serene happiness, describing his life as ‘a bouquet of roses’ (quoted in S. Alexander, Marc Chagall: A Biography, New York, 1978, p. 492).
In Chagall’s world, love was both his principal artistic subject and guiding light. As he explained, ‘In it lies the true Art: from it comes my technique, my religion. All other things are a sheer waste of energy, waste of means, waste of life, of time... Art, without Love – whether we are ashamed or not to use that well-known word – such a plastic art would open the wrong door’ (quoted in J. Baal-Teshuva, ed., Chagall: A Retrospective, New York, 1995, p. 179). At the time La mariée jaune au village was painted, Chagall had a newfound sense of equilibrium in his personal life, having married Valentina Brodsky, known as Vava, in 1952. A fellow Russian, she was both a poignant reminder of home as well as a joyful companion to the artist, who had suffered immensely following the death of his beloved first wife Bella, née Rosenfeld, in 1944.
Regardless of the passage of time, for Chagall the image of the bride would always be Bella. The couple met in 1909 in Vitebsk, and Chagall always said that for him, it was love at first sight. In his autobiography My Life, he described this intensity of feeling that followed their meeting: ‘Her silence is mine. Her eyes mine. I feel she has known me always, my childhood, my present life, my future; as if she were watching over me, divining my innermost being... I knew this is she, my wife...’ (My Life, London, 2013, p. 77). La mariée jaune au village, accordingly, is bathed in wistful nostalgia, with Chagall and Bella depicted in an eternal embrace. There seems to be a whole universe contained between them, and dressed in yellow, the bride is incandescent. Despite the presence of the moon, she is the light source illuminating all.
Yet this painting is far from elegiac. By 1957, when La mariée jaune au village was created, Chagall was happily living with Vava in Saint-Paul-de-Vence in the South of France and able to consider his life with new clarity. That he painted such a vision of love only speaks to his optimism for the future, a sense reflected in both the imagery and colours of the present work. A blissful feeling of harmony emanates from La mariée jaune au village, qualities that matched Chagall’s life at this juncture. Living and working in Provence, with Vava by his side, he enjoyed days of serene happiness, describing his life as ‘a bouquet of roses’ (quoted in S. Alexander, Marc Chagall: A Biography, New York, 1978, p. 492).