Portrait de jeune fille

ARTWORKS LIST

Pen and ink on paper
10,63 x 8 in.

Provenance
David McNeil (the artist's son), Paris, by descent from the artist (No. D 1549)
Acquired from the above in 1987

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, Monastero 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, Institut Mathildenhöhe, Marc Chagall, Von Russland nach Paris, Zeichnungen 1906-1967, Dec. 1997 - Jan. 1998
Abbazia Olivetana, Fondazione Ambrosetti, Marc Chagall, Il messaggio biblico, May - July 1998
Klagenfurt, Stadtgalerie, Marc Chagall, Feb. - May 2000, p. 50 (ill.)
Florida, Boca Raton Museum of Art, Chagall, Jan. - Mar. 2002

Literature
W. Haftmann, Chagall, Gouachen, Zeichnungen, Aquarelle, Cologne, 1975 (ill. pl. 35)
V. Rakitin, Chagall: Disegni inediti dalla Russia a Parigi, Fabbri, Milan, c1989, p. 114 (ill. p. 115)

Certificate
The Comité Marc Chagall has confirmed the authenticity of this work

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The significant and highly varied art works of French - Russian artist Marc Chagall are a reference in the field of modernism. In “Portrait de jeune fille”, the style that is so characteristic of Marc Chagall’s talent once again strikes the viewer. This pen and ink work is on display at our New York gallery, and is sure to appeal to fans of the artist and his stamp on modernism. According to Rakitin, this portrait is one of the finest examples of Chagall's late 1920s pen and ink drawings. Possibly executed in 1927, the slightly caricaturist and dramatic aspect of the female sitter echo the projects on which Chagall was working at the time, particularly his illustrations for the Cirque Vollard and for the Fables de la Fontaine. Chagall gives a comical touch to the woman posing, placing her between the human and the animal world, with her scale-like dress and her undefined arms and hands.