The Journey of Marc Chagall’s Painting of His Father
See the Recently Restituted Work, on Loan to the Jewish Museum February 16, 2023 — January 1, 2024
The vast and systemic pillaging of artworks during World War II, and the ongoing rescue and return of many, is one of the most dramatic stories of twentieth-century art. As part of its mission to explore 4,000 years of the global Jewish experience, the Jewish Museum highlights these stories through its programming and exhibitions, including the recent show Afterlives: Recovering the Lost Stories of Looted Art (2021), and now with the year-long presentation of Marc Chagall’s painting Le Père (1911), a rare portrait of his father, recently restituted to the descendants of its original owner.
Completed in 1911 in Paris, during a transformative period in the artist’s career, Le Père was among 15 works of art that the French Government restituted in April of 2022 — part of an ongoing effort to return works in its museums that were stolen by the Nazis during World War II. Chagall’s painting was restituted to the descendants of its original owner, David Cender, and sold at auction by Phillips in November 2022. Following the sale, Phillips’ team in New York worked with the anonymous buyer of the artwork and facilitated the loan to the Museum.
Le Père documents Chagall’s early artistic transformation from an art student in Saint Petersburg to one of the defining figures of European Modernism. During the winter of 1911–1912, Chagall moved into La Ruche, an artists’ communal residence on the edge of Montparnasse in Paris. The works he created over the next three years are highly regarded with his portraits bearing particular significance. Le Père is an intimate portrait of the artist’s father Zahar, who spent his entire life working in the same manual job in Vitebsk. Far from the ethereal symbolism that dominates Chagall’s later work, this early portrait is a spontaneous, direct, and expressively painted depiction.
David Cender was a musical instrument-maker from Łódź, Poland. He had acquired Chagall’s Le Père through the prominent Polish antiquarian and art dealer Abe Gutnajer in 1928. The work was stolen from Cender in 1940 before he was sent to Auschwitz with his family. While Cender survived, his wife, daughter, and other relatives were killed at Auschwitz. After the war, Cender went back to Łódź and continued to make violins, and eventually, he made his way to France. He tried to get his possessions back but died on July 9, 1966, at the age of 67, without having done so.
Le Père had been reacquired sometime in the early 1950s by Chagall himself, who understandably held a particular affinity for the painting. The artist was likely unaware of the turns in the painting’s ownership. Le Père remained in the artist’s possession until he died in 1985. In 1988, the Musée national d’art moderne, Centre national d’art et de culture Georges-Pompidou in Paris received the painting by donation from Chagall’s estate. Ten years later, the work was deposited into the Musée d’art et d’histoire du Judaïsme in Paris, where it was on view for 24 years before research showed that the work should be restituted to its rightful owner, the heirs of David Cender.
Chagall’s Le Père will be on view on the third floor of the Jewish Museum from February 16, 2023, to January 1, 2024. Plan your visit.
