Young Woman with a bouquet

Marc Chagall (1887-1985)

Title: Young Woman with a bouquet

Medium: Original water-colour, brush, Indian Ink and pencil on thin card, signed and dated (Chagall 1926), lower right

Size: 252 x 201 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

Literature: V. Rakitin: “Chagall, Disegni inediti dalla Russe a Parigi, Milan, 1989. page 112 (illustrated page 113)
Authentication: This work is sold with a photo-certificate from David McNiel, the artists son

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 “Rarazza Con mazzo di fiori”. Above this is written in pen 46/188.113. Probably this refers to the Italian exhibitions referred to above.

Note: The spontaneous brushstrokes used in this work prove how far Chagall is ready to free himself from any artistic theory or school. he does not hesitate to let his mind express itself through this work, in which a woman carrying flowers stands out against the dark background. This subject very often features in Chagall’s paintings. Using ink wash as his medium, Chagall attempts to plunge his female figure in a mystical world, as she seems to be almost an apparition coming out of a dream.