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Lithograph in colours, 1980, on Arches paper, signed in pencil, numbered from the edition of 50, published by Maeght Editeur, Paris, image: 60 x 94.3 cm. (23 5/8 x 37 1/8 in.), sheet: 75.6 x 116.8 cm. (29 ¾ x 46 in.)
In its title, this work brings the viewer back to the artist’s earlier years. ‘Isba’ refers to the traditional wooden Russian dwellings that populated Vitebsk (now in Belarus) and which were a subject of Chagall’s art from the very beginning, usually signifying the artist’s own childhood home. Created in the final years of his life, this piece features the many influences that inspired him throughout his career. Like many of his important late works, it celebrates the journey of his life from his rural upbringing in Vitebsk. The couple we see, caught in a lovers embrace, is thought to represent the artist and his childhood love and first wife Bella, watched by the cockerel that suggests the artist’s alter ego. Chagall met Bella before his first departure from Russia in 1910 and she was a constant in both his life and his work thereafter, even after her death in 1944. Bella’s presence further adds to this sense of nostalgia.
