After training and exhibiting his art in Paris, Chagall returned to his hometown Vitebsk in 1914 to marry his childhood sweetheart Bella Rosenfeld. His homecoming was prolonged by World War I (1914–18), during which international travel became restricted. Showing a public square, The Marketplace, Vitebsk contrasts the large, opulent Baroque basilica with the modest storefronts and stalls. The painter employs dramatic perspective and uses the intersecting planes and angles of the buildings to move the viewer’s eye playfully throughout the scene, which contains no clear sign of the ongoing deadly conflict.
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[Galerie van Diemen & Co. (F. A. Lutz), Berlin, until 1922; sold on September 28, 1922, as "Untere Stadt," to Thayer]; Scofield Thayer, Vienna and New York (1922–d. 1982; on extended loan to the Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Mass., as part of the Dial Collection, 1942–82; his bequest to MMA)
New York. Montross Gallery. "Original Paintings, Drawings, and Engravings Being Exhibited with the Dial Folio 'Living Art'," January 26–February 14, 1924, no catalogue (typed checklist no. 6; as "Market Place").
Worcester Art Museum. "Exhibition of the Dial Collection of Paintings, Engravings, and Drawings by Contemporary Artists," March 5–30, 1924, no. 6 (as "Market Place").
Northampton, Mass. Hillyer Art Gallery, Smith College. "The Dial Collection," May 1924, no catalogue.
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Marc Chagall," April 9–June 16, 1946, no. 22 (as "The Market Place," lent anonymously, through the courtesy of the Worcester Museum).
Art Institute of Chicago. "Marc Chagall: Paintings, Prints and Drawings," November 14, 1946–January 12, 1947, no. 22.
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. "Chagall and de Chirico," April 3–May 1, 1955, no. 43 (as "The Market Place," ca. 1917, lent anonymously through the Worcester Art Museum).
Worcester Art Museum. "The Dial and the Dial Collection," April 30–September 8, 1959, no. 17 (as "The Market Place").
Waltham, Mass. Brandeis University. "Marc Chagall," May 23–June 15, 1960, no catalogue.
Worcester Art Museum. "Selections from the Dial Collection," November 13–30, 1965, unnum. checklist.
Worcester Art Museum. "'The Dial': Arts and Letters in the 1920s," March 7–May 10, 1981, no. 13 (as "The Market Place," ca. 1917).
Canberra. Australian National Gallery. "20th Century Masters from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York," March 1–April 27, 1986, unnumbered cat. (p. 38; as "The Market Place, Vitebsk").
Brisbane. Queensland Art Gallery. "20th Century Masters from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York," May 7–July 1, 1986, unnumbered cat.
Yokohama Museum of Art. "Treasures from The Metropolitan Museum of Art: French Art from the Middle Ages to the Twentieth Century," March 25–June 4, 1989, no. 169 (as "The Market Place, Vitebsk").
Jewish Museum, New York. "Russian Jewish Artists in a Century of Change, 1890–1990," September 21, 1995–January 28, 1996, unnumbered cat. (p. 248; as "The Market Place, Vitebsk").
Jewish Museum, New York. "Marc Chagall 1907–1917," March 31–August 4, 1996, not in catalogue (unnumbered checklist; as "The Market Place, Vitebsk").
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Painters in Paris: 1895–1950," March 8–December 31, 2000, extended to January 14, 2001, unnumbered cat. (p. 81).
Dial 76 (February 1924), ill. opp. p. 107 (color), calls it "The Market Place".
"Modern Art Spirit Seen in Collection." Worcester Daily Telegram (March 6, 1924), p. 4.
James Johnson Sweeney. Marc Chagall. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art. New York, 1946, pp. 37, 42, 87, no. 22, ill. p. 40, dates it about 1917.
Louisa Dresser inThe Dial and the Dial Collection. Exh. cat., Worcester Art Museum. Worcester, Mass., 1959, p. 63, no. 17.
"The House I Live In." Worcester Art Museum, Members' Film Program Brochure (November 1959), unpaginated, ill.
Nicholas Joost. Scofield Thayer and The Dial: An Illustrated History. Carbondale, Ill., 1964, pp. 32, 211, 233, 236.
Franz Meyer. Marc Chagall. 2nd ed. (1st ed. German, 1961). New York, [1964], pp. 250, 750, Classifed Catalogue no. 272, ill. n. p., calls it "The Market Place".
Michel Butor. Les Mots dans la Peinture. Geneva, 1969, ill. p. 4 (color detail), dates it about 1917.
Nicholas Joost. "The Dial Collection: Tastes and Trends of the 'Twenties." Apollo 94 (December 1971), p. 494, colorpl. XI, calls it "The Market Place" and dates it about 1917.
John Russell. "The Dial: Showcase of a Pioneer Collector." New York Times (May 3, 1981), p. D27, ill.
Michael Brenson. "Met Museum Given Major Private Collection." New York Times (August 25, 1982), p. A1, ill.
Terence Measham in20th Century Masters from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Exh. cat., Australian National Gallery. Canberra, 1986, p. 38, ill. (color).
William S. Lieberman. 20th Century Art: Selections from the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Vol. 1, Painting: 1905–1945. New York, 1986, pp. 6, 28–29, 63, ill. (color, overall and detail), calls it "The Market Place, Vitebsk".
Kay Larson. "The Met Goes Modern: Bill Lieberman's Brave New Wing." New York Magazine 19 (December 15, 1986), p. 46, calls it "The Market Place".
Elyse Topalian. "Modern Art in the Met." Apollo 124 (October 1986), p. 362, calls it "The Market Place".
Gary Tinterow et al. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 8, Modern Europe. New York, 1987, p. 128, colorpl. 105, call it "The Market Place, Vitebsk".
John Richardson. "Rediscovering an Early Modern Vision: The Dial Collection Recalls the Life and Times of Scofield Thayer." House and Garden 159, no. 2 (February 1987), ill. p. 162 (color).
John Russell. "Art: Unexpected Juxtapositions in the Met's New Wing." New York Times (January 21, 1987), p. C17.
"The Met's Extra Room." New York Times (January 30, 1987), p. A26, calls it "Market place, Vitebsk".
Sylvia Hochfield. "Thoroughly Modern Met." Art News 86 (February 1987), p. 115.
William S. Lieberman inTreasures from The Metropolitan Museum of Art: French Art from the Middle Ages to the Twentieth Century. Exh. cat., Yokohama Museum of Art. Yokohama, 1989, pp. 207–8, no. 169, ill. (color).
John Russell. "A Critic's Eye: Choosing Favorites in Museum Collections." New York Times (August 31, 1990), p. C22, ill.
Mario Naves. "Between Paris and the Shtetl: Marc Chagall at the Jewish Museum." New Criterion 14 (May 1996), p. 50.
Kristina Wilson. "Fearing a 'Conservative Public': The Dial Collection in Worcester." American Art 27 (Fall 2013), fig. 2 (installation photo, Exh. Worcester 1924).
Marc Chagall (French, Vitebsk 1887–1985 Saint-Paul-de-Vence)
1965
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