Marc Chagall

Paris Through the Window

When Matisse dies, said Picasso, Chagall will be
the only painter left who understands what colour is.
Marc Chagall, in fact, outlived both Matisse and Picasso,
dying in 1985 at the age of 97, one of the last of the
generation of great modern artists. Who could ever though
that a simple man with mixed cultural backgrounds was
able to do so much art masterpieces during his time?


The painting that I chose to present is "Paris trough a
window", because it is one of my favorite pices from
Chagall. The broken, puzzle-like appearance of the
painting is an influence from Cubism, breaking up reality
and reassembling it in new ways. The viewer is attacked by
the painting in a first step with formalism, which is known
for creating an impact by color, shapes and lines. Color is
used to establish moods, because it can have this effect on
people. Warm colors (red, orange and yellow) evoke
emotions ranging from feelings of warmth and comfort to
feelings of anger and hostility. While, the blue side of the
spectrum colors (blue, purple and green) are often
described as calm, but can also call to mind feelings of
sadness or indifference. In matter of shapes, triangles are
seen throughout the painting: the parachute, the Eiffel
Tower, inside the windowpanes and also many rectangular
shapes: the window, the windowpanes, the buildings.
Another theory that we can remark in this painting is
representialism, through the iconic Effiel Tower a symbol
of Paris, a place where at that time all artists gathered
because Paris was the world's art capital.
It is believed that " Paris Through the Window" is a follower
of the " Self-Portrait with Seven Fingers" painting, which
Chagall painted a year earlier.



In which, two landscapes hover above the painter: his new
home Paris and his native land Belarus. Therefor, The
Janus figure in Paris Through the Window has been read
as the artist looking at once westward to his new home in
France and eastward to Russia. This is proof of the
presence of expresionism, because we can identify the
painter's emotions, missing his childhood and his
homeland, but at the same time being proud of the
present.