La belle rousse ou Les cheveux rouges 1949

Curator: Marc Chagall's "La belle rousse ou Les cheveux rouges," painted in 1949, presents a rich tableau of imagery in oil on canvas. What strikes you immediately? Editor: The vibrant, dreamlike quality jumps out. There’s a sense of otherworldliness, a fairy tale atmosphere. It feels celebratory, but with a tinge of melancholy. The use of colour is quite expressive. Curator: Absolutely. Chagall often blended memory, folklore, and personal experience. It's interesting how he integrates these diverse elements into a single coherent composition. The work seems to stand apart from many other expressions of the post-war era. Editor: That central couple—the red-haired woman and the green-faced man. The colour choices carry symbolic weight. Red often symbolizes passion and life force, while green...perhaps envy, or renewal? Their embrace seems to hover outside the laws of physics. And there is a goat-headed man with a violin on the bottom-left corner. Curator: It certainly plays with visual allegories! Looking back at his earlier work from his time in revolutionary Russia and the 1930's in France when he already started facing antisemitism, we may see recurring motifs taking different shapes and connotations. This is quite typical of many early modernist Jewish artists of Eastern-European origins, as it's been demonstrated time and time again. Editor: You are right, and looking at his life trajectory this rings even truer, especially the violin which always has an aura of longing and melancholia as part of Jewish life in the Pale of Settlement and beyond. Here, there's something comforting about seeing the violin alongside these houses beneath—it evokes home, despite everything. What a journey he makes us embark on as observers. Curator: Exactly. The composition overall speaks volumes about Chagall’s life and about how we see history and social commentary being imprinted into artworks such as this one, despite the romantic mood. Thank you for that brilliant deconstruction, that unveils what lays beneath. Editor: Thank you. It’s been enriching to find these visual symbols intertwining like memory threads and cultural meanings that add a rich depth to the artistic piece.