Esquisse pour tableau l'Opéra by Marc Chagall

Marc Chagall
1887-1985 | Russian

Esquisse pour L'Opéra
(Study for the Opéra)

Signed "Chagall Marc" (lower left) and signed and inscribed "Marc / pour Vava / 1953 / Chagall" (en verso)

Oil on canvas

"You have to make drawing sing through color." – Marc Chagall 

This vibrant oil on canvas offers a captivating glimpse into the fantastical world of the great Marc Chagall. Imbued with the dream-like quality that characterizes his best work, this painting, entitled Esquisse pour tableau L'Opéra, pulsates with profound musicality. It also serves as the genesis of a powerful image and motif that would later emerge in Chagall’s monumental ceiling painting for the Paris Opera House. Rich with history and the artists’ love for Paris, this composition is both magical and enthralling. 

Chagall's use of color creates movement and harmony, and this work embodies his famed musicality. Rendered in a vibrant palette of red, orange and blue, the composition features a woman in white dancing and floating above a depiction of the Paris Opera House. She is positioned beneath an image of three intertwined figures—Chagall’s rendition of Carpeaux’s famous sculpture, The Dance, now housed at the Musée d’Orsay. Chagall reimagines this iconic sculpture within a bluish-purple cloud, bringing it to life in his uniquely fantastical form.

The artist's use of orange and blue in this work is both intentional and ethereal. As complementary colors, orange and blue create a striking contrast when juxtaposed within Chagall’s vibrant composition. Typically, Chagall only let orange dominate in his Parisian scenes, showing a deep affection for the city. The reverse of this painting also displays Chagall's adoration for his wife Vava, with its dedicatory inscription reading "Pour Vava," or "For Vava," accompanied by a heart.

Chagall cherished this opera motif profoundly—after completing this remarkable composition, he revisited the image in another oil on canvas titled L'Opéra in 1953, though the colors are less captivating. He later created a similar lithograph in 1954, also titled L'Opéra, which is heralded as one of his most vibrant and colorful lithographs, featuring bright red and green hues. Among the different versions of this famed image, our piece was chosen as the cover for the book Marc Chagall: The Ceiling of the Paris Opera by Jacques Lassaigne. More than any other rendering of the motif, this great work represents Chagall in his purest form, using his language of color to evoke a deeply personal visual narrative of the themes he cherished most: music, the idea of home and history.

Marc Chagall was born in Vitebsk, Russia, to a large, close-knit Jewish family of herring merchants. He began studying painting in 1906 under the famed artist Yehuda Pen. In 1907, he moved to St. Petersburg and joined the school of the Society of Art Supporters. In 1910, Chagall relocated to Paris 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 is unquestionably one of the most celebrated of the 20th century. His paintings have remained prized highlights in public and private collections alike, with works belonging to important institutions across the globe including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Guggenheim Museum in New York, Tate Modern in London and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

This work is accompanied by its certificate of authenticity issued by the Comité Marc Chagall.

Dated 1953

Canvas: 17 5/8" high x 12 5/8" wide (44.77 x 32.07 cm)
Frame: 26 1/2" high x 21 3/8" wide x 2" deep (67.31 x 54.29 x 5.08 cm)

Provenance:
Valentina (Vava) Lazarevna Brodsky, gifted from the artist in 1953
Thence by descent
Weinstein Gallery, California
Private Collection, Missouri, acquired from above circa 2007
M.S. Rau, New Orleans

Literature:
Jacques Lassaigne, Marc Chagall: The Ceiling of the Paris Opera: Sketches, Drawings and Paintings, Praeger, New York, 1966, illustrated on cover