Marc CHAGALL (French-Russian, 1887-1985) "Liberation",... Lot 44

Marc CHAGALL (French-Russian, 1887-1985) "Liberation", study, 1952 Oil and India ink on canvas. Stamp of the Marc Chagall estate at the bottom center. H. 47.5 W. 29 cm. Provenance: - artist's estate, n°HT 391, 1985 - collection David Mac Neil, son of the artist, 1986 - private collection, Japan, - private collection, Touraine, since 2006. Attachments : - Certificates of Jean-Louis Prat for the Marc Chagall Committee, Paris, July 8, 2019 (2019090 A) replacing that of October 11, 2006 (n°2006131). - Certificate of David Mac Neil with the stamp of the Chagall Estate, October 24, 1986 (HT 391). The painting "Liberation" was first painted in 1937 by Marc Chagall, as the final part of a huge triptych commemorating twenty years of the Russian Revolution, soberly entitled "Revolution". Today gathered together in the Marc Chagall National Museum, these three paintings were divided and reworked by the artist from 1943 onwards, then in exile in the United States, and titled "Resistance", "Resurrection" and "Liberation". "The fate of the Jewish people who died in the Nazi camps in Europe torments the artist, whose work is imbued with the Yiddish culture in which he grew up in Belarus. Chagall finally repainted "Liberation" in 1952; our painting, done on the back of a portrait of a woman, is the sketch. In the centre of a circular track made of three radiating discs, red and yellow, seemingly beating like a heart, a violinist leads the spectators towards happy days, accompanied by a double bass. An embracing married couple fly over the rooftops of a house. It is Marc and his wife Bella. The groom is wearing the same costume as the painter who has represented himself on his easel above the stage. A red revolutionary flag at the top right and a Jewish menorah at the bottom left are all details that can be found on the final work. On the other hand, the green figure of the patriarch, present in the lower right of the sketch, then disappears. The canvas