FEMME À LA BOUGIE OU MA GRAND-MÈRE 1926 - 1927

This is Marc Chagall’s painting of his grandmother, or, Woman with a Candle. Look how he’s used gentle washes of colour, like watercolour, to illuminate her face, and then sharp, dark marks to give her features shape. I imagine Chagall remembering her, sitting in his studio, letting his brush wander across the page, as if trying to find her in his memory. Her face is all soft greens, yellows and oranges. Her expression is gentle, calm, as though she might be thinking of something far away. But he has rendered her wrinkles with heavy dark paint, as well as the bulbous candleholder. It's like he’s saying, ‘this is memory, lit softly, but time, well time leaves its mark.’ The blues that snake through the background of the painting remind me of Kandinsky, but also of Soutine, whose portraits share this balance between vivid colour and a somber mood.