The paintings that awaken our inner child happiness

The above paintings were drawn by Marc Chagall, a Russian painter, who was born in Vitebsk, Russia in 1887.

When we talk about Marc Chagall’s paintings, we always think of his fanciful images of blue cows, flying lovers, biblical prophets as well as green-faced fiddlers on roofs. His paintings give us the impression of being fantastic and irrational with rich colours in context. His well known paintings include I and the Village, Self-Portrait with Seven Fingers, The Birth, The Wedding and The Blue House.

Marc Chagall’s paintings were deemed exceptionally imaginative, poetic, dreamlike and fantastical. Thus they were an application of fauvist and cubist techniques, consisting of bright, strong colors that displayed a simplistic and unrealistic world, one that would immediately grasp the viewer’s attention although Chagall did not believe in placing himself in this category.

Guillaume Apollinaire (a French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist, and art critic) employed the expression "Surnaturalist" in connection with these paintings of Chagall,

Art historian and curator James Sweeney notes that others often still associate his work with “illogical and fantastic painting”, especially when he uses “curious representational juxtapositions. Sweeney writes that “This is Chagall’s contribution to contemporary art: the reawakening of a poetry of representation, avoiding factual illustration on the one hand, and non-figurative abstractions on the other.” 

André Breton (a French writer and poet, also known best as the founder of Surrealism) said that “with him alone, the metaphor made its triumphant return to modern painting.

Marc Chagall was able to convey striking images using only two or three colors. Raymond Cogniat who was a French art critic writes, "Chagall is unrivalled in this ability to give a vivid impression of explosive movement with the simplest use of colors..." Throughout his life his colors created a "vibrant atmosphere" which was based on "his own personal vision."

Picasso once said,“When Matisse dies, Chagall will be the only painter left who understands what color is… His canvases are really painted, not just tossed together. … There’s never been anybody since Renoir who has the feeling for light that Chagall has.”

When he died in Saint Paul de Vence on March 28, 1985, at 97, Chagall was still working, still the avant-garde artist who refused to be modern. That was the way he said he wanted it: “To stay wild, untamed . . . to shout, weep, pray.” It has exceptionally expressive colors, to stress the emotions of this painting, which are love and happiness.

“If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing.” 
~ Marc Chagall