Marc Chagall
1887-1985 | Russian

Le repos
(Rest)

Signed “Marc Chagall“ (lower right)
Gouache, watercolor and pastel on paper

Master Marc Chagall composed this contemplative and dreamlike painting entitled Le repos, which hails from the later years of his important oeuvre. Throughout his long career, Chagall infused his works with powerful imagery and symbolism, exploring themes of love, camaraderie and happiness in his celebrated vibrant palette. No other 20th-century artist possessed Chagall’s gift for compositional harmony, and his canvases capture intimate, otherworldly visions of his own imaginative aesthetic world.

In Le repos, Chagall presents a celebration of the titular activity: rest. Appearing as a flowering tree at first glance, Chagall places a large vase of purple, yellow and red blooms centrally on the canvas — a favorite motif of Chagall. As artist Andre Verdet once recalled, “Marc Chagall loved flowers. He delighted in their aroma, in contemplating their colors... In his work, flowers held a special place.” Mirroring the artist’s own satisfaction with the flowers, a lounging nude and a mother and child rest beneath the florals within the composition, while small animals flit across the landscape. A crescent moon rises over the distant cityscape, imbuing the image with the languorous and surreal qualities for which his paintings are so beloved.

Chagall’s later works are characterized by a rich use of bright colors and a turn toward even more personal and introspective compositions. While his artistic career betrays the influences of the Cubists, Supremacists, Surrealists and Abstract Expressionists, Chagall remained on the margins of these major movements. His aesthetics, subjects and visual explorations were always uniquely his own. In Le repos Chagall's intoxicating dreamscape invites the viewer to rest and reflect, much like the dozing figures beneath the towering flowers.

Marc Chagall was born in Vitebsk, Russia, to a large, close-knit Jewish family of herring merchants. He began studying painting in 1906 under famed artist Yehuda Pen. In 1907, he moved to St. Petersburg and joined the school of the Society of Art Supporters, studying under Nikolai Roerich, and was exposed to every school and artistic style imaginable during his tenure there. Chagall remained in St. Petersburg until 1910, when he relocated to Paris in order to be near the art community of the Montparnasse district, and he would eventually become a French citizen. Amongst the turmoil of the 20th century, including the Soviet regime and the outbreak of WWII, Chagall would continue to move between Russia, France and the United States throughout his life. Chagall died at the age of 97 in Saint-Paul de Vence, France, in 1985, leaving behind an incredible body of work that continues to demand the highest attention in the art community. Today, his works belong to the collections of prestigious museums across the globe including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Guggenheim Museum in New York, Tate Modern in London and the National Museum of Modern Art in Paris.

This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by the Comité Marc Chagall, signed by Jean-Louis Prat, dated Paris, 15 September 1999 and numbered 99 113.

Painted 1980