Perls Gallery, New York
Sale: Parke-Bernet, New York, April 26, 1961, lot 68A
Galleria Gissi, Turin
Sale: Sotheby's, London, June 30, 1987, lot 99
Sale: Sotheby's, New York, November 16, 1989, lot 385
Private Collection

In very good condition. Executed on board that is laid down on canvas. The surface is very slightly dirty. Some thin lines of craquelure in the red of the bouquet and the green of the vase right of the bouquet. The artist has incised the surface in numerous places as part of his process. There is a pinhead size chip of loss at the lower left edge of the bouquet. Under UV: no apparent inpainting.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Painted in 1948, Le Rêve nocturne evokes iconic images from Chagall's oeuvre. The ghostly motif of the young lovers rising into the oversized bouquet was a theme Chagall used to express his feelings of loss and nostalgia while he was mourning his first wife Bella, who died in 1944. Also the rows of houses at the bottom of the work are a tribute to Chagall's childhood home of Vitebsk, which was largely destroyed during World War II. Franz Meyer addresses how Chagall fuses personal history and emotion in his works: "Psychic construction operates with colors, forms and motifs, exploits this myriad variety and so creates a new world... the Vitebsk of memory, the mystery of love and religion... the references move to and fro, sustained by the vigorous yet mysterious life of the color" (Franz Meyer, Chagall, New York, 1963, p. 54).

The vibrant palette and dream-like atmosphere of the present work is emblematic of Chagall's best work. The chromatic variations of Le Rêve nocturne, particularly the vibrant reds and greens, which contrast with the deep blues, show an artist reveling in the sensuous and symbolic possibilities of color. As he did in many other works at this time, Chagall employs the color blue to create a sense of mysticism, alluding to the spiritual significance that color holds in religious iconography. His celebration of love, depicted in the embracing couple and the romantic symbol of the bouquet, was a common theme in his oeuvre. As Chagall commented early in his career, shortly after his arrival in Paris, "Despite all the troubles of our world, in my heart I have never given up on the love in which I was brought up or on man's hope in love. In life, just as on the artist's palette, there is but one single color that gives meaning to life and art - the color of love" (quoted in Jacob Baal-Teshuva, Chagall, Cologne, 1998, p. 10).