La place du marché, Vitebsk (1917)

Chagall, Marc (1887-1985)

La place du marché, Vitebsk (The Marketplace, Vitebsk)
1917
Oil on canvas, 66 × 97.5 cm
Metropolitan Museum of ArtNew York

After training and exhibiting his art in Paris, Chagall returned to his hometown Vitebsk in 1914 to marry his childhood sweetheart Bella Rosenfeld. His homecoming was prolonged by World War I (191418), during which international travel became restricted. Showing a public square, The Marketplace, Vitebsk contrasts the large, opulent Baroque basilica with the modest storefronts and stalls. The painter employs dramatic perspective and uses the intersecting planes and angles of the buildings to move the viewer’s eye playfully throughout the scene, which contains no clear sign of the ongoing deadly conflict. (MET)

See also:

• Vitebsk (Belarus)