Young Girl wearing a hat

Marc Chagall (1887-1985)

Title: Young Girl wearing a hat

Medium: Original drawing, circa 1906, pencil on paper, signed by the artist “Marc Chagall” (lower right)

Size: 245 x 318 mms

Provenance: David McNeil (The artists son), Paris, by decent
Chagall’s first wife, Bella, died tragically at a young age in 1944. For months after her death Chagall could not work but was helped through the crisis by his daughter, Ida. Ida hired an English French speaking maid called Virgina McNiel to take care of her father and Virginia became the artist’s muse until 1951. She was the mother of David McNiel from whose inheritance this present work comes.
Acquired by the last owner in 1987

Exhibited:
Milan, Studio Marconi, Marc Chagall, Disegni inediti dalla Russia a Parigi, May - July 1988; This exhibition later travelled to Turin
Galleria della Sindone, Palazzo Reale; Dec 1990 - Mar 1991
Catania, Monastrero dei Benedettini, Oct - Nov 1994 ;
Meina, Museo e centro studi per il disegno, June - Aug 1996
Hannover, Sprengel Museum, Marc Chagall “Himmel und Erde” Dec 1996 - Feb 1997
Darmstadt, Institute Mathildenhohe, Marc Chagall, Von Russland bis Paris, Zeichnungen 1906 - 1967 : Dec 1997 - Jan 1998
Abbazia Olivetana, Fondazione Ambrosetti, Marc Chagall, Il messaggio biblio, May -July 1998
Klagenfurt, Statgalerie, Marc Chagall, Feb - May 2000, p.17 (illustrated)
Florida: Boca Raton Museum of Art, Chagall, Jan - Marc 2002
Verso is a label printed with the title “ Giovane donna con cappello, 1906, matita su carte, 24.5 x 31.8 cms”. Above this is written in pen 18.p8. 23. Probably this refers to the Italian exhibitions referred to above.

Literature: V. Rakitin: “Chagall, Disegni inediti dalla Russe a Parigi, Milan, 1989. p.22 (illustrated page 23)
Authentication: This work is sold with a photo-certificate from David McNiel, the artists son
Note: After his short apprenticeship with Jehuda Pen’s painting school, Chagall and his close friend, Viktor Mekler moved to St Petersburg in the winter of 1906. Jews required a resident permit to work and live in the city, but with the help of Grigory Goldberg, a patron of the arts, Chagall was accepted at an art school. He joined the Imperial Society for the Promotion of the Arts led by Nikolai Roerich, renowned for the designs he had made for Serge Diaghilev (1872 - 1929). This school was considered to be liberal, although students sought the traditional principals of drawing in order to pass the exams for the academy. Chagall preferred to draw in his own style and he much criticised the traditional drawing of “numerous plaster heads of Greek and Roman citizens projected from every corner and I, poor provincial, had to pore over the wretched nostrils of Alexander of Macedon - or some other plaster idiot” (my life, page 81). The young artist showed more interest in representing his fellow students drawing the model rather then copying the model itself, as is clearly illustrated in the present work. With a caricaturial hint, Chagall shows the serious students, occasionally enhancing individual traits. The artist’s skills as a draughtsman singled him out amongst the four best students of the school and he was awarded a small scholarship. Some of the teachers, however, criticised his anti-academic attitude. This caused Chagall to leave the school in July 1908.