Nocturne 1963

This dream-like image is a print by Marc Chagall, an artist whose long life spanned some of the most turbulent years of the twentieth century. Chagall was born into a Jewish family in Belarus, then part of the Russian Empire, and he spent his life negotiating his identity as a Jew in the diaspora, his sense of belonging always divided between his birthplace and the adopted cities where he made his art. Chagall's negotiation of identity is clear in his choice of imagery. Here, we see the Eiffel Tower looming behind a reclining, sensual woman. Floating alongside them is a goat, an animal often found in his work and a reference to his roots in Jewish culture. The composition has an emotional intensity which draws on Chagall’s experience of love and displacement. "If I create from the heart," Chagall once said, "nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing." This painting seems to reflect his ability to work from the heart, uniting personal and cultural symbols with a palpable dreamlike logic.