The London Jewish Museum of Art: New home of Marc Chagall holocaust drawing and highlight of exhibit

  Photo by Carl Van Vechten (1941) Library of Congress,
Prints and Photographs Division, Van Vechten Collection

The London Jewish Museum of Art has just acquired a previously unknown Marc Chagall drawing, one of his rare creations with a holocaust theme.

Randy Kennedy for the New York Times reports on the incredibly acquisition of this 1945 drawing by Chagall, which has now become the centerpiece of the London Jewish Museum of Art's previously planned exhibit.

Chagall had kept the work for himself, but that after his death in 1985 it was sold to a private collector in the South of France. And there it sat for almost 25 years until it was put up for auction for unknown reasons.

Chagall, who was born in Vitebsk, Russia (present-day Belarus)
in 1887, signed and titled it himself in Russian — “Apocalypse in Lilac, Capriccio”.

It is a dark drawing, unlike Chagall’s often whimsical visions of Eastern European Jewish folk culture. The drawing is steeped in the horror of the holocaust. He and his Bella had been living in France when the Nazis began its occupation. Eventually they relocated to the United States in 1941. (For more information on Chagall's life go to Chagall- Wikipedia.org and Weinstein - Chagall

The unveiling of this lost Chagall masterpiece adds unexpected drama to a long planned exhibition of some 40 masterworks from the Museum collection.

The Museum had been located at the Ben Uri Gallery, tucked into St. Johns Woods at 108a Boundary Road, off Abbey Road. But the gallery has had to close temporarily for building improvements. As a result the exhibit will be open at Osborne Samuel 23a Bruton Street, Mayfair, from January 8th through 31st. Admission is free.

(c) Neala Schwartzberg