Marc Chagall’s joyful painting ‘Résonances de Vitebsk pour la famille’ is filled with the characteristic poetic motifs that defined his mature period. Having settled in Saint-Paul on the Côte d'Azur with his wife Vava in 1966, Chagall began to look back longingly to his youth spent in the Jewish market town of Vitebsk, which had been destroyed by German troops during the invasion of Russia. During this period Chagall’s art merged memory with fantasy, drawing upon symbols from Russian folklore alongside the breadth of his imagination.

Scattered across ‘Résonances de Vitebsk pour la famille’ are fragments of Chagall’s memories from Soviet Belarus, including the roofs of rustic homes and animals. Chagall creates a further wave of nostalgia through the couples with their children woven around the dancing musicians leading to the skyline of the city in the distance. The rich vitality of tone echo the melodies played by the central musicians and evokes the mythical atmosphere that surrounds this celebration of family.


By 1980, the year this painting was creted, Chagall was one of the world’s most celebrated artists. He returned to the Sovient Union in june 1973 for the first time in over fifty years. Having earlier written of how ‘The title of Russian painter’ means more to me than any international fame… in my paintings there is not one centimeter that is free from nostalgia for my native land’, ‘Résonances de Vitebsk pour la famille’ is a clear homage to this. Alongside this painting the artist also created a number of gouache drawings all recounting the memories of his homeland.