At the Easel 1922

Marc Chagall created this print, At the Easel, using etching. The figure is presented upside down, and the scene takes place in an artist’s studio. Born in Belarus, the Russian-French artist spent time in pre-Revolutionary Russia, and later in France and the United States. Considering that, how might we read this depiction of an artist at work? Perhaps this relates to the artist’s experience as an outsider, never fully at home in a single culture. As art historians, we can read the visual codes in relation to the artist’s biography, and to the social and political circumstances in which he lived and worked. We can consider how those experiences may have shaped his attitude toward the institutions of art, like the studio depicted here, or the art market where his work was sold. By exploring the historical context of the work, we see how art embodies responses to real social conditions.