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Collections

Marc Chagall
Violinist on a Bench1924/1925

Not on view
Oil painting of an elderly bearded man playing violin while seated outdoors in snow, with a small dark figure walking in the distance behind him
Artist or Maker
Marc Chagall
Belarus, active France, 1887-1985
Title
Violinist on a Bench
Place Made
Russia
Date Made
1924/1925
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
40 × 30 in. (101.6 × 76.2 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Mary Day McLane
Accession Number
64.6
Classification
Paintings
Collecting Area
Modern Art
Provenance

The artist (1887-1985). [Galerie Katia Granoff by 1928.] Sold to John McLane (1898-1960) around 1947, possibly through [Dalzell Hatfield Gallery] [1]; by inheritance to Mary Day McLane; given in 1964 to LACMA.

[1]: This information is drawn from a letter from the Reverend James McLane to Marc Chagall, February 10, 1948, AMIC-2A-0092-023, Archives Marc et Ida Chagall, Paris. This letter establishes how the work likely came to Southern California, as it mentions a “Los Angeles dealer whose wife acquired this picture last summer from Holland through Jewish friends of theirs.” Out of a handful of Los Angeles dealers selling modern European art at the time, it is very likely that the painting came through Dalzell Hatfield, whose wife, Ruth Hatfield, was very involved in the family business.

Selected Bibliography
  • Powell III, Earl A., Robert Winter, and Stephanie Barron. The Robert O. Anderson Building. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1986.
  • Kuthy, Sandor; Meret Meyer. Marc Chagall 1907-1917. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1996.
  • Gauthier, Ambre and Meret Meyer. Chagall and Music. Montreal: Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 2016.
  • Meyer, Franz. Marc Chagall: Life and Work. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1964.
Copyright
© Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

Related Unframed

“Dear Marc Chagall”: What (Else) Provenance Research Can Teach Us
“Dear Marc Chagall”: What (Else) Provenance Research Can Teach Us
  • November 14, 2023
  • Gökcan Demirkazik