I'm quite a fan of Chagall's work, but I'd not seen this one before. Now I'm an even bigger fan.
This painting entitled 'Man at Table' was painted in 1911. I can find no explanation about the imagery. It's quite unlike his later more dream-like works.
There is a beautiful looseness and naivety about his work which often illustrate 'folk tales' from his native Russia. Even when he moved to Paris in 1910, he continued to paint of the influences from his early life back in Belarus.
Essentially he was a 'Jewish Painter', whose work one critic described as 'Hebrew jazz in paint'.
It's that Cat that makes it; don't you think?
It looks like a comic strip. There are tiny drunk men on the far end of the table.
ReplyDeleteGreetings Maria x
They look like drunk Monkeys to me!
DeleteFantastic wine bottle label. I'm surprised nobody has used it. Also, haven't seen it before. There's a wine company in Austria called Kattus.
ReplyDeleteChateau Chagall's Kattus? An Aussie friend of mine tells of a beer who's advert claims 'X's beer makes you drunk'. To the point. (I'm not sure why I thought of this)
DeleteIf I had 'photoshop', no doubt I could miniaturise the picture, and transfer it to the wine bottle.
DeleteThere's an Australian pub in the centre of Vienna. Last time I went in it was full of Finns. Big guys who like their pop.
DeleteI don’t really like it Cro .... it looks like the work of a very disturbed person and is rather scary to me !!!! He looks as if he’s got a cosh in his hand and is going to hit the cat ..... no, sorry Cro, not for me but we all like different things !!!!! I have just read a bit about him and see that he is all about colour and that Picasso liked his work so what do I know !!!! I do like his painting called The Circus Horse ..... that appeals to me much more. XXXX
ReplyDeleteHis later works are more 'likeable', than this one. You have to be a bit odd to like that CAT.
DeleteIt could be a cosh or a cigar. The cat could be scratching the drunken man's neck or merely sleeping. The anti-alcohol and no drinking on Sunday brigade and the Welsh Methodist preachers of the Victorian era could have had a field day with this image had they known about it. But thankfully for my dad they didn't and the law was changed and he, a Methodist sinner, no longer had to get on his motorbike and go from Bangor to Flint for a pint on a Sunday after a hard week's work as he had too once. Some paintings are a pandora's box of thoughts and ideas.
DeleteThere is a fork on the plate, so maybe it's the knife? Being part Welsh, I can confirm that they're all a bunch of hypocritical Sunday boozers; a bit like the Saudis.
DeleteI think he is feeling very sick and is wondering if he will make it to the loo, and thinking, "Shall I use the excuse that the cat is sitting on my lap so that's why I could't get up?"
ReplyDeleteMaybe he's just poked himself in the eye; one of them is very red!
DeleteChagall is one of my favourite artists and a great inspiration to me. I cannot get enough of him. I love the colours, the subjects, the simplicity, the dancers, the animals and his life story, the harlequins. He did some wonderful stained glass windows for churches too.
ReplyDeleteI think if I'd seen this one when I was at college, I might have been a little influenced by him too. I know his window at Chichester, which is a blaze of colour. Wonderful.
DeleteAn influence, one of many.
DeleteHe sure can paint. The few paintings I have seen of yours Cro have a similar style, an oddness to the uninitiated.
ReplyDeleteLX
He was a 'one-off'. His era produced some very good Russian artists.
DeleteI adore Chagall’s work too (and yes, I can see his influence in Rachel’s drawings). I first came across him through his beautiful tapestries in the Knesset in Jerusalem in 1980 which I went back to again and again, but nowadays I seek out his windows and there is a little church in the Weald of Kent where all the windows are designed by Chagall and of course Walter Hussey commissioned a wonderful window for Chichester Cathedral. One of my favourite artists for sure.
ReplyDeleteWhereabouts in the Weald Sarah? I’d love to visit.
DeleteLX
It is All Saints Church in the village of Tudeley, near Tonbridge. Tudeley has a Wiki page which mentions the windows but if you can see them in real life that would be wonderful.
DeleteThanks Sarah, we used to live not far away from Tudeley before we moved to Hythe. I am going back to the dentist in a couple of weeks, I will be sure to make a detour.
DeleteLX
Chichester very red; Tudeley very blue.
DeleteIndeed the cat. It was the first thing I saw and focused on. I do not know of him but I quite like this painting.
ReplyDeleteThere are cats, and cats. This is a CAT.
DeleteThe colours are great and yes, the cat!
ReplyDeleteDon't let Rick see it.
DeleteOMG, I laughed so hard I spit my coffee out. That cat!!!! That cat...is PRICELESS! Thanks for the laugh. I needed it. :-)
ReplyDeleteNothing at all like our Cat; thank goodness!
DeleteNot like any Chaagal I have ever seen - I usually like his work very much but must say I hate this.
ReplyDeleteAs I said above, I think his later, more dreamy, works are more likeable.
DeleteI like the cat/dog
ReplyDeleteIt could be a Dog; I hadn't thought!
DeleteIt's a Chagall cat.
DeleteExcellent painting.
ReplyDeleteI can look at Chagall and wonder but I can't look at Chagall and like what I see.
ReplyDeleteThank goodness I'm not the only one who thought it was a monkey!
ReplyDeleteI think his later, more dreamy, works are more likeable.สมัคร D2BET
ReplyDelete