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Study for Aleko's Horse

1953-56

Russian, 1887 - 1985

In 1942, the Ballet Theater of New York hired Chagall to design the sets and costumes
for a new ballet based on Russian author Alexander Pushkin’s 1824 poem, The Gypsies. The poem and subsequent ballet tell the story of a young man named Aleko who runs away from his “civilized” life to live in a gypsy camp, where he falls in love with the gypsy girl Zemfira. When she is later unfaithful to him, Aleko kills her and her lover in a fit of jealous rage, and is banished from the camp. This work was a study for one of Chagall’s sets when the ballet was revived in 1953.

Oil on canvas

18 × 24 in. (45.7 × 61 cm)

Gift of Gladys and Sam Rubinstein

2014.26.9

Provenance: Sam and Gladys Rubinstein, Seattle

Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Modern in Europe: Featuring Selections from the Collection of Gladys & Sam Rubinstein, Nov. 5, 2004 - Apr. 17, 2005.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Paintings and Drawings of the European Avant-Garde: The Rubinstein Bequest, Apr. 23, 2014 - May 16, 2021 [on view until July 26, 2015].

Published ReferencesF. Meyer, Marc Chagall: Life and Work, New York, NY 1963, illustrated, No. 953

Werner, Alfred. Chagall Watercolors and Gouaches. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 1970, pp. 72-73 (Aleko)

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