Marc Chagall, La Bastille (The Bastille), 1954 Limited Edition Color Lithograph

Marc Chagall, La Bastille (The Bastille), 1954 Limited Edition Color Lithograph

Artist signed in plate top left corner.
Limited edition “27/375” pencil marked bottom left corner.

Dimensions:
Framed 32″ x 26″
Unframed 24″ x 18″

A visual tour de force of a historic French landmark, Marc Chagall’s La Bastille (The Bastille), 1954 depicts the Place de la Bastille through Chagall’s dreamlike imagery and rich colors. Marking the location where the notorious Bastille prison once stood, the Place de la Bastille is a square in Paris with the July Column at its center, which commemorates the events of the July Revolution in 1830. A swath of crimson along the lower half of the image tapers into the head of a Chagallean cow at the right, while deep lavender and indigo mingle in the surrounding space. The juxtaposition between the fiery red and cool blues horizontally divides the July Column in the image, which visually evokes the fraught history marked by the column. Two figures at the bottom left of the composition lie so intertwined with each other that their bodies appear as one, sharing the same plump breasts, torso, and lower body. This amalgamation of figural bodies creates a visual allusion to the lives and histories intermingled at this landmark. The saturated colors and flowing composition of Marc Chagall’s La Bastille (The Bastille), 1954 not only yields a compelling and beautifully dynamic image but also commemorates the richly layered history of the Place de la Bastille.