Over Vitebsk
Aux Environs de la Ville
Marc Chagall, French (born Russia), 1887 - 1985
Geography:
Made in France, Europe
Date:
c. 1914Medium:
Oil, gouache, graphite, and ink on paperDimensions:
Sheet: 12 3/8 x 15 3/4 inches (31.4 x 40 cm)Copyright:
© Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris Curatorial Department:
Prints, Drawings, and PhotographsObject Location:
1963-181-10Credit Line:
The Louis E. Stern Collection, 1963
Made in France, Europe
Date:
c. 1914Medium:
Oil, gouache, graphite, and ink on paperDimensions:
Sheet: 12 3/8 x 15 3/4 inches (31.4 x 40 cm)Copyright:
© Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris Curatorial Department:
Prints, Drawings, and PhotographsObject Location:
Currently not on view
Accession Number:1963-181-10Credit Line:
The Louis E. Stern Collection, 1963
Label:
Over Vitebsk belongs to a large series of works that the artist began after his return to his hometown in June 1914, which take as their subject an over-life-size, elderly beggar floating above the snow-laden rooftops of Vitebsk. The painting plays on the Yiddish expression for a beggar moving from door to door, er geyt iber di hayzer, which translates as “he walks over the houses.” This whimsical turn of phrase allowed Chagall to transform an otherwise naturalistically rendered scene of Vitebsk in winter through the addition of a strange airborne character with a sack on his back, whose presence imbues the composition with a dreamlike otherworldliness.
Over Vitebsk belongs to a large series of works that the artist began after his return to his hometown in June 1914, which take as their subject an over-life-size, elderly beggar floating above the snow-laden rooftops of Vitebsk. The painting plays on the Yiddish expression for a beggar moving from door to door, er geyt iber di hayzer, which translates as “he walks over the houses.” This whimsical turn of phrase allowed Chagall to transform an otherwise naturalistically rendered scene of Vitebsk in winter through the addition of a strange airborne character with a sack on his back, whose presence imbues the composition with a dreamlike otherworldliness.
