The Tale of the Ebony Horse 1945 - 1946

Marc Chagall made "The Tale of the Ebony Horse" as an illustration using ink, probably around the mid-20th century. It feels almost like a dream, where things float and overlap in a space that doesn't quite make sense. It's this blue, kind of scratchy and light, like he’s drawing with moonlight. I’m really drawn to the way the lines are so raw and immediate. Like he wasn't trying to hide the process at all. Look at how the figures are just suggested, not fully formed, especially in the cluster of people on the right, it reminds me of the way I paint. The whole thing has this sense of lightness, of not being too precious. It feels like an echo of someone like Matisse, who was also making these playful, lyrical images, but filtered through Chagall’s very particular, folky sensibility. It’s a reminder that art is just a conversation, a way of talking to each other across time and space.