CHAGALL Marc (1887-1985)
Signed notebook illustrated... Lot 238
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CHAGALL Marc (1887-1985)
Signed notebook illustrated with original drawings [1940-1960], 85 pages of
Chagall's drawings in pen and ink, watercolour, pencil and charcoal (76 on a full page, 6 on double pages) and 8 pages of
Bella Chagall's autograph manuscript, which are copies of her translations of French poems in Yiddish, all under burgundy cardboard.
The notebook was illustrated between France and New
York between the years 1942 and 1965. This notebook was in Bella's possession at the time of her death and Chagall, devastated, kept it for 20 years, filling the gaps that surrounded the texts with a virtual catalogue of her moving and colourful iconography. The notebook contains numerous portraits of Bella and self-portraits of Chagall. Notably a very beautiful washed portrait of Bella with a bowl of fruit. Two delicate pencil portraits, one with closed eyes, the other with open eyes surrounded by black circles, both probably depicting Bella's illness. Chagall himself appears in a few portraits, including a very colourful one with a palette and brushes. In another, sitting next to a bottle, the drawing enhanced in colour is monogrammed by
Chagall. Further on, he is shown with a blue head, sitting at his easel, contemplating a red painting of himself and Bella.
The couple appears together in one of the drawings as artist and model or as an extended bridal couple; in another they float in the sky with a crescent moon, a chicken and a donkey playing the violin.
Remarkable and moving notebook.
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