Galerie Cazeau-Béraudière, Paris
Acquired from the above

Roslyn, New York, Nassau County Museum of Art, Long Island Collections, 2002
Roslyn, New York, Nassau County Museum of Art, Marc Chagall, 2012, no. 26, illustrated in color in the catalogue

This work is in overall very good condition and has a lovely rich impasto surface. The canvas is not lined and there is no evidence of retouching under UV light.
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.
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Painted in 1970, La Joeur d’accordéon is a striking example of the mesmerizing dream world that characterizes Chagall’s distinctive artistic vision. At the center of the composition a dazzling bouquet of flowers which surrounds an accordion player who serenades his lover. Flowers are part of the cornucopia of motifs that reoccur throughout Chagall’s oeuvre, and they carry a unique significance, as André Verdet explains: “Marc Chagall loved flowers. He delighted in their aroma, in contemplating their colors. For a long time, certainly after 1948 when he moved for good to the South of France after his wartime stay in the U.S., there were always flowers in his studio. In his work bouquets of flowers held a special place… Usually they created a sense of joy, but they could also reflect the melancholy of memories” (André Verdet quoted in Jacob Baal-Teshuva, ed., Chagall: A Retrospective, Fairfield, 1995, p. 347). In the present work Chagall further explores the powerful association between lovers and flowers that began in his oeuvre as early as 1915, in his canvas L'Anniversaire, in which his first wife Bella is shown holding a bouquet of flowers.

Chagall liberally employs an expressive blue palette, lending the image its distinctive sense of atmosphere, another defining and celebrated element of Chagall’s oeuvre painted in Saint-Paul-de-Vence. As Walter Erben writes, “The Southern French landscape had astonished Chagall with its wealth of colours and its lyrical atmosphere, had captivated him with the beauty of its flowers and foliage. These impressions found their way into his paintings of that period, refined their peinture and lent them a hitherto unknown radiance” (Walter Erben, Marc Chagall, London, 1957, p. 134). This wonderfully romantic and meditative work is thus testament to the serenity Chagall found in his later years, all the while assembling togeth🌊er some of t♊he artist’s most iconic and enduring themes.