Terra sebv s acta mvsei sabesiensi s

Musical Images as a Reflection of the Artistic Universalism of Marc Chagall 

 

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lived in our precinct. In the afternoons he worked as a sales clerk at the 

ironmongers, and in the evening he taught the violin. I rasped with 

difficulty. He beat the measure with his leg and constantly said: “Perfectly!” I 

thought: “I will become a violinist and enter the conservatory.

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”

  

Childish recollections played a significant role in Chagall’s creative 

development. The violin, although it did not become his main vocation, 

entered deeply into his artistic consciousness and occupied an everlasting 

place within his works. Klezmer melodies, which accompanied the main 

events in Jewish provincial life, became a vivifying medium, feeding all his 

creativity; Jewish traditional music was a unifying element, a “theme song,” 

in his works.  

On the painter’s canvases fantastic images of  stringed instruments 

frequently appear - violins, cellos, mandolins and harps (depicted with 

various degrees of  realism) - as well as musicians playing instruments. A 

precisely selected colour palette conveys the character and emotional state 

of  the “sounding” fragment.  

An entire thematic gallery is formed by the portraits of  violinists 

depicted in the process of  performing, including Sitting Violinist,  Violinist 

(fig. 1),  Street Violinist  (fig. 5) and other works shown below (fig. 2-4, 6). 

The soul of  a klezmer ensemble, the violinist is always the most delicate and 

poetic exponent of  the eternal melancholy and hope of  the Jewish people. 

Chagall frequently depicts him alone, or surrounded by animals, or by 

listeners some distance away from him. Dressed in traditional clothes, the 

violinist on the one hand symbolizes Chagall’s native, small-town 

upbringing (it is not without meaning that the painter used the expressive 

image of  a green-skinned violinist for the panel decorating a Jewish theatre, 

and elsewhere; see figs 1 and 2). On the other hand, the violinist personifies 

the eternal, the timeless. Concentrated, as if  illuminated by inner light, face 

of  the musician personifies the spiritual-creative element, the creative 

energy of  art, sent out into the world.  

The mystery of  musical performance in Chagall’s works is 

comparable to prayer; it offers reconciliation with the hardships of  everyday 

existence and opens a way to the sphere of  the highest ideals. In Chagall’s 

art, we do not see ceremonial portraits of  violinists: almost all are 

“inscribed” into the surrounding atmosphere, closely connected with the 

surrounding world and yet, at the same time, rent from it. They are 

generalized images, based on family members and close associates of  the 

painter, such as his Vitebsk friends and neighbours (in particular, his Uncle 

Neuch, whose unskilful but sincere music-making Chagall describes in My 

Life). The character of  these depictions is mainly lyrical, even intimate, 

                                                 

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 Ibid. 

www.cclbsebes.ro/muzeul-municipal-ioan-raica.html   /   www.cimec.ro

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L. G. Safiullina, G. I. Batyrshina 

 

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although sometimes dramatic, social-critical notes appear. For example, the 

watercolour The Musicians (1908) shows a blind violinist, playing for alms in 

the company of  another miserable disabled individual.

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The colour of  not only the violinist’s face, but also his clothes, 

instrument and interior elements are of  great symbolic importance, as well 

as the background selected by the painter. Non-standard, sometimes 

shocking combinations, aimed at revelation of  ingenuity, the “distance” of  

the performed set the “key-note” of  the whole picture, bear aesthetical 

information to the viewers. A paradigmatic example is the above-mentioned 

green violinist who Chagall depicts several times: in A Violinist (1912-1913, 

fig. 1), on the panel Music for the State Jewish Chamber Theatre and in 

Green  Violinist (1923-1924, fig. 2), duplicating the successfully-rendered 

image of  the panel. A violinist in the picture Juggler, found in the lithography 

The Musicians against a Green Background, is depicted against a green 

background, which to Chagall means joy, welfare and love for life.  

 

    

                     

 

  

 

 

 

The range of  Chagall’s colour “score” is deeply impressive: faery blue 

(Blue Violinist, fig. 3), passionate red (A Violinist and an Inverted World, fig. 4), 

flushed orange (Street Violinist, fig. 5), fervent yellow (A Violinist and a Cock, 

fig. 6) and depressing black-brown (The Musicians, 1908). 

  

                                                 

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 A detailed analysis of the watercolour The Musicians is carried out by Miriam Rajner in the 

article Chagall’s Fiddler (Rajner 2005). 

Fig. 1. A Violinist, 1912-1913. Oil on 

canvas, 188/158 cm. Amsterdam, 

Stedelijk 

Fig. 2. A Green Violinist, 1923-1924. Oil 

on canvas, 198/108.6 cm.  

New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim 

Museum

www.cclbsebes.ro/muzeul-municipal-ioan-raica.html   /   www.cimec.ro

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