SwissArtGallery · Documented identity

Marc Chagall

Born : 1887Died : 1985Documented citizenships : France

In Marc Chagall’s work, decorative lyricism is associated with subjects shaped by Russian folk art and his roots in Hasidic Judaism. This approach accompanies a career spanning more than eight decades of the twentieth century.

In 1910, he settled in Paris to study art. The First World War and events connected with the Russian Revolution subsequently kept him in Russia from 1914 to 1923. After returning to France, he remained there until the Nazi occupation, then went to New York with his wife in May 1941, narrowly escaping the occupation.

In Praying Jew (1923), Chagall has a man pose wearing his father’s prayer garments. The Art Institute of Chicago page describes a predominantly black-and-white palette and a slight distortion of the features, which it links to the assimilation of modern trends, particularly Cubism.

In White Crucifixion (1938), Christian iconography is combined with markers of Jesus’s Jewish identity; he is depicted amid scenes of contemporary persecution in Nazi Germany. Chagall later covers some Nazi symbols, giving the work a more universal scope around persecution, sacrifice and suffering.

With America Windows (1977), a six-panel stained-glass window designed for the Art Institute of Chicago and given to the museum in the same year, Chagall commemorates the bicentennial of the United States. The work combines references to artistic achievements and national symbols, including the Statue of Liberty, with local signs such as the silhouette of Chicago. White Crucifixion and America Windows are both in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.

This profile brings together identity references for Marc Chagall and paintings, drawings and works on paper documented in auction catalogues.

170 references are documented at Artcurial Beurret Bailly Widmer, Dobiaschofsky, DognyAuction, Kornfeld, Piguet, Germann, Lempertz. Each record links to its source; the amounts are not a general valuation of the artist’s work.

Works recorded at auction

Kornfeld · Lot 111

Encounter against an Orange Background

Tempera

Original catalogue wording

Rencontre sur fond orange
tempera

Catalogue period : 2025-09-12

Catalogue reference — sale not confirmed

Estimate : CHF 225000

Marc Chagall

Works recorded at auction

Encounter against an Orange Background

L'Oiseau bleu

Moses

Motherhood

Sketch for The peasant

The knight

The Painter and His Colours

Colourful dancer

Lovers in Red and Yellow

Celebration with Flowers and Fruit

Spring bouquet against a blue background

Sketch for “The Angel and the Bride”

The Large Bouquet against a Blue Background

Pink Nude with a Fan at Rest

Moses and the Golden Calf

King David

The Painter's Vision

Mother and child in the village sky

Self-portrait of the painter

Multicoloured bouquet on the table

Village encounter against a green background

Tenderness

The family in the village

The Painter's Homage to the Four Seasons

Mother and child

The painter's house

Sketch for the fall of Icarus

Jacob’s blessing

David and Bathsheba with a large bouquet

Mother and child

Three Bouquets for Maternity

Equestriennes at the circus

The painter's vision at the circus

The Painter with Bouquets

Newlyweds Celebrated in the Village

Flight into Egypt and Crucifixion

Mother and child at Vence against a multicoloured background

Abraham and the Three Angels

Where is the day? Variant for an unrealised woodcut for the Poèmes

Sketch for the Tree of Jesse

Jacob’s blessing

Nude with flowers on a rooster in Paris

Rest beneath a yellow sky

Bride and groom and a red goat in the sky

Le Baou de Saint-Jeannet, sketch

Mother and child above the rooftops

Couple in the Sky of Paris

The goat's visit against a yellow background

Village festival

Profile with a bouquet

The Painter in Front of “The Red Sun”

The Lovers with Two Bouquets and the Painter

Lovers with peonies

Large bouquet of peonies and cherries

Couple in paradise

The departure

Around the Exodus

Crucifixion

Paradise

The painter in Vitebsk in winter

Encounter at the circus

Encounter around the green-faced flautist

The equestrienne in red with a double profile

Watch Figure

The sleigh in moonlight

Farm scene in a village

Nocturnal Flight into the Blue Sky

“My Life” between Vitebsk and Paris

Lovers in the violet sky and the tree in red

The cellist reading in the village

King David with a harp

Moses and the Golden Calf

Mediterranean

Homage to the large bouquet

Large Bouquet at the Window on Quai d'Anjou

Bouquet for the lovers in front of the Sacré-Cœur

Baie des Anges

Circus Scene with Horsewomen on a Red Horse