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MARC CHAGALL(1887-1985)Couple au bouquet
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Adelaide Dunn
Associate Specialist, Head of Sale
MARC CHAGALL (1887-1985)
signed 'Marc Chagall' (lower right)
brush, pen and India ink on card
13.9 x 10.6cm (5 1/2 x 4 3/16in).
Footnotes
The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by the Comité Marc Chagall.
Provenance
Private collection, France (possibly acquired directly from the artist).
Private collection, France (by descent from the above).
Acquired from the above by the present owner.
This intimate work was executed by Marc Chagall on the reverse of the wedding announcement of Ida Chagall and Franz Meyer. Ida, Chagall's only daughter, married Meyer in January of 1952. Meyer, later the director of the Kunstmuseum Basel, would go on to become Chagall's most authoritative biographer, his scholarship establishing the foundational text for the artist's oeuvre. The work captures one of Chagall's most enduring motifs: a couple framed before a luxuriant bouquet, their constituent expressive, velvety strokes evoking both the vitality of new love and the artist's deeply personal iconography.
The year of the announcement also coincides with a pivotal moment in Chagall's personal life. In April 1952, Virginia Haggard – his companion since the war years – left him, while Ida, recognising her father's solitude, introduced him to Valentina 'Vava' Brodsky, who would become his second wife later that year. Against this backdrop, the present sketch assumes a resonance beyond its delicate subject, as both a celebration of matrimonial union within the family and a possible poignant reflection of Chagall's own transitions in love and companionship.
