Anniversary Celebration Drawing
1972
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
pen and blue ink on printed card
Dimensions
sheet: 16 x 25.2 cm (6 5/16 x 9 15/16 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
The John U. and Evelyn S. Nef Collection
Accession Number
2011.60.33
Art Historical Context
Created in 1972, Marc Chagall’s *Anniversary Celebration Drawing* offers an intimate glimpse into the artist’s later years. Working at the age of eighty-five, Chagall used the modest format of a printed card to produce a personal work executed in pen and blue ink. The small sheet, measuring just 16 by 25.2 centimeters, invites close viewing and suggests a private gesture rather than a large public statement. Chagall’s fluid line work in this drawing reflects his lifelong preference for spontaneous, poetic imagery. Even in old age, he retained the dreamlike sensibility that had defined his car...
About the Artist
Marc Chagall
Marc Chagall, born Moishe Shagal on July 7, 1887, in Liozna near Vitebsk in the Russian Empire (now Belarus), grew up as the eldest of nine children in a devout Jewish family confined to the Pale of Settlement. His father worked as a herring merchant's porter, while his mother sold groceries from home, instilling in young Chagall a deep connection to Hasidic Judaism and Eastern European folklore a...