Marc Chagall Lithograph
"Carmen" (Framed)

*With Frame: 23 1/2" W x 28 3/4"H

*Without Frame: 11 1/2" W x 16 1/2" H

Upon observing Marc Chagall's Carmen, we are reminded of its complexity and outright beauty. Known as Chagall's most prized graphic work, Carmen is named after the opera by Georges Bizet. Translating a detail of his "Triumph of Music" mural installed at the Metropolitan Opera, Chagall worked for months to perfect the large-scale lithograph. Mirroring the intricate plot, the composition includes certain details that capture the viewer's attention.

First, there is the central figure of the mandolin player, a secret portrait of Rudolf Bing, who had commissioned the original wall-size decoration as the Opera's director. This musician likely represents the bullfighter Escamillo, who vies for Carmen's love with an equally smitten soldier, Don José. Participating in the long tradition of honoring patrons with a hidden portrait, Chagall weaves in all sides of his folksy, whimsical, and thoroughly modern art. Carmen contains references to many aspects of the opera's tragicomic story: Don José holds a dagger in his hand, presaging his impassioned murder of the woman he loves after she rejects him; a bullfight in a tiny ring at the top recalls this second lover's occupation. In a final twist, the illuminated New York skyline places this old tale of love lost in an urban, 20th century context.

This work was created in 1966 from a maquette for Chagall's "Triumph of Music," a series of 2 large-scale decorations created for the Metropolitan Opera House in New York (one being Carmen, the other, The Magic Flute).