Marc Chagall, "La Mariée à la Lune" (detail). For sale at the Modern Art + Design Auction.

FOR SALE AT THE Modern Art + Design AUCTION

Marc Chagall, one of the twentieth century’s most prominent artists, was born in 1887 in Vitebsk, Belarus. His passion for art drew him to Europe and he died aged 98 in 1985 in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France. Chagall studied at art school in St Petersburg in 1907, and the following year he became a student of Leon Bakst. Having completed his studies, Chagall made his way to Paris in 1910. “Paris, without whose air, mankind would suffocate”

He produced his first major masterpieces there, at the age of twenty-five. Russia, Donkeys and Others; Homage to Apollinaire; I and the Village. In Paris he fell in with a group of artists and poets including Léger, Modigliani, Laurens, Brancusi, Cendrars, Apollinaire, Duchamp, Villon and many others. He travelled back to Russia in 1914 via an exhibition in Berlin, to Vitebsk, where he met Bella, the love of his life. World War I broke out and prevented him from returning to Paris. He married Bella in 1915 and the following year, their daughter Ida was born. Chagall became involved in the revolution and was later made commissar of visual arts. It wasn’t until 1922 that he and his family were able to leave the country again via Lithuania and Berlin. He returned to Paris in 1923 and was commissioned to illustrate Gogol’s Dead Souls, The Bible and La Fontaine’s Fables. Between 1924 and 1925 he produced a total of 107 engravings. He worked and travelled extensively, including to Palestine and Jerusalem. Chagall was granted French citizenship in 1937. In 1941, on the day Germany invaded Russia, he received a last-minute invitation from the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the family boarded a boat in Lisbon, destination USA. Bella tragically died in the US in 1944 and Chagall, overwhelmed with grief, found that he was incapable of producing any work for almost an entire year. He didn’t return to France until 1948, settling in Provence. Here he made the acquaintance of Aimé Maeght, who became his publisher in France.

In France he was reunited with Matisse and Picasso, and eventually he met Valentina (Vava), whom he married in 1953. Love gave him renewed impetus. He began working with a new medium, glass, which culminated in several magnificent pieces over the coming years, including stained glass windows in Reims cathedral, murals at the Metropolitan Opera, a tribute to Dag Hammarskjöld at the UN building in New York entitled Peace, and his Four Seasons mosaic in Chicago’s First National Plaza.

La Mariée à la Lune features all the hallmarks of a Chagall painting: the hovering bride and groom, the folk musician, the gorgeous flowers and of course, the deep blue sky. In this exquisite painting, Chagall has managed to compress his artistry and his motifs in an exceptionally skilful way.

WHEN IS THE VIEWING AND THE SALE?

Viewing 20 – 24 April at Bukowskis, Berzelii Park 1, Stockholm. Sale 25 April at Arsenalsgatan 2, Stockholm.

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