Self-Portrait with a Seeing-Eye Heart
1974
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
pen and ink on title-page of bound volume
Dimensions
page size: 21 x 20 cm (8 1/4 x 7 7/8 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
2011.60.91
Art Historical Context
Marc Chagall created this intimate self-portrait in 1974, late in his long career, using simple pen and ink on the title page of a bound volume. At just 21 by 20 centimeters, the drawing feels personal and spontaneous, as if sketched directly into a cherished book. Chagall, renowned for his dreamlike imagery that blended Russian-Jewish folklore, memory, and emotion, often returned to themes of love and inner vision throughout his life. The title “Self-Portrait with a Seeing-Eye Heart” hints at the artist’s poetic symbolism, where the heart replaces the eye as the true organ of perception. Ren...
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...