Description of the artwork

Executed in 1959, The Queen with the Necklace belongs to one of the most accomplished periods of Marc Chagall's career. Having settled in the South of France in the late 1940s, the artist had by this time developed a visual language of remarkable freedom, in which childhood memories, biblical themes, and symbols of love intertwine within compositions imbued with a renewed sense of light and colour. Internationally acclaimed, Chagall was simultaneously engaged in painting, printmaking, ceramics, and major monumental commissions, affirming a fully mature artistic vision.

The female figure forms the focal point of the composition. Depicted nude and adorned only with a delicate golden necklace, she appears less as an individual portrait than as an idealised embodiment of femininity. Her serene features recall the women who populate Chagall's work from the 1910s onward. Although these figures often originated in the memory of Bella Rosenfeld, the artist's wife and lifelong muse, they gradually assumed a broader symbolic dimension, becoming timeless representations of love, fidelity, and beauty.

Surrounding her are several of the most characteristic motifs of Chagall's iconography. The rooster, traditionally associated with vitality, renewal, and popular folklore, stands beside a tree with vibrant blue foliage, while the cluster of houses evokes Vitebsk, the artist's birthplace, which remained throughout his life both a landscape of memory and an inner homeland. Dominating the composition, a large crimson disc encloses a floating face whose enigmatic presence introduces a cosmic and spiritual dimension. Whether interpreted as a sun, a moon, or a visionary apparition, the image resists any single meaning, reflecting Chagall's poetic language, in which symbols retain their mystery and emotional resonance.

The palette fully exemplifies Chagall's chromatic mastery during the late 1950s. Deep blues, luminous reds, and velvety blacks are balanced with remarkable spontaneity, while the untouched areas of the paper play an essential role in giving the composition lightness and rhythm. The drawing, at once fluid and assured, allows the forms to emerge with an apparent simplicity that conceals a sophisticated command of pictorial space.

In The Queen with the Necklace, Chagall does not seek to depict the visible world but rather to give form to an inner reality where memories, emotions, and symbols coexist in complete freedom. The work stands as a compelling synthesis of his mature artistic language, uniting colour, memory, and poetry in an image of profound emotional and universal resonance.

Origin

Galerie David et Garnier, Paris (acquired directly from the artist)
van Diemen-Lilienfeld, New York (acquired from the previous owner)
Parke-Bernet, New York, 8 April 1964, lot 38 (offered for sale by the previous owner)
Private collection, New York (acquired at the previous sale)
Then passed down through the family to a private collection

Literature

The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by the Chagall Committee