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Le Grand Cirque (1956) is an oil and gouache on canvas painting by Belarusian-French artist Marc Chagall created in 1956.

Le Grand Cirque (1956)
Artist	Marc Chagall
Year	1956 (1956)
Medium	Oil on canvas
Dimensions	159.5 cm × 308.5 cm (62.8 in × 121.5 in)
Owner	private collection

Description

The canvas features acrobats, trapeze artists and clowns.[1] The subject of circus was dear to the artist.[2] Chagall often returned to the circus as a subject matter in his artworks.[3] He considered clowns, acrobats and actors as tragically human beings who are like characters in certain religious paintings.[4] Among other Post-Impressionist and Modern painters who featured the circus in their works are Georges Seurat, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Pablo Picasso, Georges Rouault, Kees van Dongen, and Fernand Léger.[4]

Provenance

At least until 1974 Le Grand Cirque was in a property of Gustave Stern Foundation, New York.[5] In 2007 the painting was acquired from the Gustave Stern Foundation and Sold at Sotheby’s, New York for $13.8 million, becoming a part of private collection in Switzerland.[6] In 2017, the painting was sold for $16 million, to an Asian telephone bidder.[1]

Exhibitions

• Bern, Kunsthalle, Marc Chagall, Oeuvres de 1950 à 1956, 1956, no. 46
• Basel, Kunsthalle, Oeuvres des 25 dernières années, 1956, no. 61
• Paris, Galerie Maeght, Marc Chagall, 1957, no. 5
• Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts & Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, L'oeuvre des dernières années, 1956-57, no. 147
• Hamburg, Kunstverein im Hamburg; Munich, Haus der Kunst & Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Marc Chagall, 1959, no. 166, illustrated in the catalogue
• Paris, Musée des arts décoratifs, Exposition Marc Chagall, 1959, no. 174
• South Bend, Indiana, University of Notre Dame Art Gallery, 1965
• Saint-Paul-de-Vence, Fondation Maeght, Hommage à Marc Chagall, 1967, no. 46, illustrated in the catalogue
• Zürich, Kunsthaus (on loan)
• Jerusalem, The Israel Museum, Chagall in Israel, 2002-03[5]

References

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