Marc Chagall
1887-1985 | Russian
L’ile de Saint-Louis
Stamped “Marc Chagall” (lower right)
Later signed "Pour Vava / [heart] souvenir / Marc 1981 Chagall" (en verso)
Oil on paper with gouache wash mounted on canvas
Rendered in a vibrant red palette, L’ile de Saint-Louis is exemplary of the highly personal style of the great Marc Chagall. The work is a celebration of the creative imagination of the painter, who is credited with creating his own unique and distinctive artistic language that forever changed the landscape of 20th-century art. Informed by Cubism, Orphism and Abstract Expressionism, Chagall’s work eschews perspective and formal representation in favor of the explosive colors and flattened planes that are on display in the present work. Magical in its emotive tone, it represents the artist at his very best.
In so many ways, L’ile de Saint-Louis represents the culmination of Chagall’s lifetime of artistic mastery, bringing together some of his most iconic motifs. A woman, likely his second wife, Vava, holding a floral bouquet dominates the top left of the composition, while his adopted homeland of Paris is lovingly rendered in shades of red with dramatic pops of complementary colors. The cockerel to the right of the scene reflects his childhood in the rural Russian village of Vitebsk, while his own self-portrait in the lower left corner represents his personal affections for his new home in France. Overall, L’ile de Saint-Louis is a stunning example of Chagall’s lasting visual idiom, as well as a vivid expression of his personal history.
Chagall’s works are unique in that they continuously place the figure of the painter at the center of his artistic explorations. In many ways, modernity freed the artist from the constraints of socially imposed themes, whether dictated by the patron or the academy. Instead, the subjective emotional and psychological experience of the artist reigned supreme, and Chagall excelled at its expression. Even when experimenting with the flattened planes of Cubism or the proponents of Orphism, Chagall’s work remained unapologetically personal throughout his long and highly successful career. It is perhaps this sincerity of emotion and feeling that makes his works so beloved to this day.
That sense of emotion is keenly felt in L’ile de Saint-Louis thanks to its highly expressive palette. Almost entirely a strong red in tone, the work fully explores the nuance of this emotive hue, which is rarely seen in Chagall’s body of work. The artist more commonly worked in shades of blue, green and purple, a palette that lent his works a sense of calm tranquility. This extraordinary work, however, pulsates with heightened emotion thanks to its primarily red palette, which evokes an aura of passionate love — love for his wife, love for country and love for life.
The painting was chosen by Chagall himself to appear in the highly important text Chagall by Chagall, a remarkable volume penned by the artist that highlights his personal life history alongside his favorite works. L’ile de Saint-Louis appears in his chapter that pays homage to Paris, the city he made his home for much of his life and career. His words that accompany this painting in his book reveal the deep sense of home he discovered in the French city: “There it is! Paris, you are my second Vitebsk!”
Chagall was born in Vitebsk, Russia to a large, close-knit Jewish family of herring merchants. Throughout his life, he described these years as happy yet impoverished, a sentiment expressed in his canvases. In 1907, he moved to St. Petersburg and joined the school of the Society of Art Supporters, where he was exposed to every school and artistic style imaginable. Chagall remained in St. Petersburg until 1910 when he moved to Paris for a brief period in order to be near the art community of the Montparnasse district. In 1914, he returned to his hometown and married Bella Rosenfeld, the subject and inspiration for much of his work.
He became active in the Russian Revolution of 1917 and was made the Commissar of Art for the Vitebsk region. Not faring well under the new Soviet regime, Chagall and his family moved back to Paris in 1923. During this time, he published memoirs, articles and poetry in Yiddish and became a French citizen in 1937. With the outbreak of World War II, the Chagalls fled Paris and settled in the United States in 1941. His wife Bella died from illness in 1944 and he fell into a deep depression and made the decision to move back to Europe in 1946. The next few years in Chagall's life were intense, with his works reflecting a new, vibrant ambiance. He was able to escape his depression when he met his second wife Virginia “Vava” Haggard, and his new-found happiness was expressed through his works that were dedicated to love and the joy of life.
In the last decades of his life, Chagall traveled extensively, including a trip to Israel in 1960 during which he created stained glass windows for the synagogue of the Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem. Other public artworks he completed during this time include the mosaic murals of the Metropolitan Opera House and the stained glass wall of the United Nations Headquarters, both in New York. Chagall died at the age of 97 in Saint-Paul de Vence, France, leaving behind an incredible body of work that continues to demand the highest attention in the art community.
Painted in 1959
