Through the back of the Parlor
Vitebsk · La Ruche · the exile · Vence
Chapter I
The shtetl · 1887–1910
Born in Liozno near Vitebsk, eldest of nine. His father a herring merchant, his mother running a small grocery. The Hasidic-folk world that would become the floating violinists and rooftop lovers of every subsequent painting. Yiddish was his first language. The synagogue was around the corner.
The six pieces on offer
1953-54
Postwar Paris. Sand texture. Notre Dame as motif.
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1968-72
Late Vence years with Vava. The red bird recurring across the late canvases.
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1953
Studies related to the Paris Opéra ceiling.
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1958
Saint-Paul de Vence, his late village in the hills. Lovers floating above the rooftops — his enduring motif.
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1940-44
Wartime exile, New York. Bella sickening and dying in 1944. The bride-and-animals iconography becoming an elegy.
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1918
Early Vitebsk period. Golikov Institute analysis on file. 2003 Russian conservation scientific report.
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c. 1975
Late Vence years. Still life with flowers, the recurring lineage of floral and symbolic compositions that define Chagall’s mature work. The painting remained in Chagall’s own collection and estate until after his death in 1985.
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c. 1927
From the La Fontaine Fables series commissioned by Ambroise Vollard in 1925. Certified by the Marc Chagall Committee, 30 January 2020. Exhibited at Bernheim-Jeune Gallery Paris, Le Centaure Gallery Brussels, and Alfred Flechtheim Gallery Berlin (all 1930); Musée d'Art Moderne de Céret (28 Oct 1995 – 8 Jan 1996); Musée National Message Biblique Marc Chagall, Nice (13 Jan – 25 Mar 1996). Documented in Franz Meyer, *Marc Chagall*, Harry N. Abrams, New York, 1961, illustration #434. Specific provenance chain available under DDNDA.
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