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Lot 434 Property from a Private California Collection
Marc Chagall (1887-1985)
L'Été
Closed12 November 2018
Price Realised
USD 708,500
More Information
Specialist note
The Comité Marc Chagall has confirmed the authenticity of this work.
L’Été combines many of Chagall’s favorite elements, focusing on the gigantic arrangement of flowers, which spans the entirety of the canvas and stands taller than the male figure on the right. The exuberant splendor of this floral display, further amplified in the artist’s imagination, dwarfs the mother and child, who sit in the foreground of the compisition, as if sitting beneath a tree.
In 1977, the year Chagall painted this rapturous conception of lumière-liberté, the French government celebrated the occasion of the artist’s 90th birthday by awarding him the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor, the highest award it may bestow on anyone who is not a head of state. Special celebrations were held throughout France, including gala concerts and television programs. Pope Paul VI sent a congratulatory message. In October, President Giscard d’Estaing inaugurated a Chagall exhibition at the Louvre, only the third time in the history of this institution that this honor had been granted to a living artist, following the precedent accorded Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso. Having become the doyen of the legendary early modernists, Chagall ultimately outlived them all. Like Picasso before him, he worked until the very end.
L’Été combines many of Chagall’s favorite elements, focusing on the gigantic arrangement of flowers, which spans the entirety of the canvas and stands taller than the male figure on the right. The exuberant splendor of this floral display, further amplified in the artist’s imagination, dwarfs the mother and child, who sit in the foreground of the compisition, as if sitting beneath a tree.
In 1977, the year Chagall painted this rapturous conception of lumière-liberté, the French government celebrated the occasion of the artist’s 90th birthday by awarding him the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor, the highest award it may bestow on anyone who is not a head of state. Special celebrations were held throughout France, including gala concerts and television programs. Pope Paul VI sent a congratulatory message. In October, President Giscard d’Estaing inaugurated a Chagall exhibition at the Louvre, only the third time in the history of this institution that this honor had been granted to a living artist, following the precedent accorded Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso. Having become the doyen of the legendary early modernists, Chagall ultimately outlived them all. Like Picasso before him, he worked until the very end.