The Curate and the Corpse 1927 - 1930

This is "The Curate and the Corpse" by Marc Chagall, made with etching. Just imagine Chagall, hunched over his plate, carefully incising these tiny, nervous lines. He's building up this whole scene bit by bit, almost like he's writing a story in whispers. You can sense a frenetic energy in the composition, can't you? The way the characters are arranged in a state of near-panic, as if a chaotic dream is unfolding before our eyes. And the horse rearing up like that-- It's a kind of primal scream, as if the animal knows something we don't. Chagall's marks become a language of feeling. He’s talking to us about what it means to be caught between tradition and change, between joy and sorrow. Like Soutine, like Beckmann, Chagall wrestles feeling from dark times.