Le Grand Cirque (1956) | |
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Artist | Marc Chagall |
Year | 1956 |
Medium | Oil on canvas |
Dimensions | 159.5 cm × 308.5 cm (62.8 in × 121.5 in) |
Owner | private collection |
Le Grand Cirque is an oil and gouache on canvas painting by Belarusian-French artist Marc Chagall created in 1956.
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]
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]