Gouache on board
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
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<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/marc-chagall-881" aria-label="More by Marc Chagall" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Marc Chagall</a>
Green Donkey
Presented by Lady Clerk 1947
adults
animals: mammals
architecture
donkey
house
man
people
residential
woman
<p>While living in Paris between 1910 and 1914 Chagall made many works based on nostalgic memories of his Russian homeland. The naïve style and curious subject of this painting reflect the artist’s preoccupation with folk traditions, particularly those of his Jewish heritage. At one time known as ‘Village Scene’, the colouring and strange arrangement of figures evoke a fantastical scene. While this may relate to a folk tale, no specific narrative for the green donkey has been identified.</p><p><em>Gallery label, March 2005</em></p>
paper unique gouache board
8 February 2013 – 6 October 2013
2013-10-06
8 February 2013 – 12 May 2013
2013-05-12
2013-02-08
Kunsthaus Zürich (Zürich, Switzerland)
http://www.kunsthaus.ch/
7 June 2013 – 6 October 2013
2013-10-06
2013-06-07
Tate Liverpool (Liverpool, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/
2013-02-08
Chagall: Modern Master
Exhibition
8 February 2013 – 29 September 2013
2013-09-29
8 February 2013 – 12 May 2013
2013-05-12
2013-02-08
Kunsthaus Zürich (Zürich, Switzerland)
http://www.kunsthaus.ch/
2013-02-08
Chagall: Modern Master
Loan-out
30 July 2018 – 14 July 2019
2019-07-14
30 July 2018 – 14 July 2019
2019-07-14
2018-07-30
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
2018-07-30
Magic Realism
Exhibition
27 September 2024 – 10 August 2025
2025-08-10
15 March 2025 – 10 August 2025
2025-08-10
2025-03-15
K20 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen (Düsseldorf, Germany)
2024-09-27
Marc Chagall
Loan-out
The Green Donkey
support: 324 × 413 mm
Presented by Lady Clerk 1947
<p>While living in Paris between 1910 and 1914 Chagall made many works based on nostalgic memories of his Russian homeland. The naïve style and curious subject of this painting reflect the artist’s preoccupation with folk traditions, particularly those of his Jewish heritage. At one time known as ‘Village Scene’, the colouring and strange arrangement of figures evoke a fantastical scene. While this may relate to a folk tale, no specific narrative for the green donkey has been identified. 
<br/></p>

Display caption
2005-03-30T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<strong>Marc Chagall</strong> born 1887 [- 1985]
<p>
<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/chagall-the-green-donkey-n05758" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05758</span></a> <strong>L'Ane vert</strong> (The Green Donkey) 1911
</p><p>
Inscribed 'Chagall' and 'Paris 1911' both b.r. Gouache on millboard, 12 3/4 x 16 1/4 (32.5 x 41.5)<br/>
Presented by Lady Clerk 1947<br/>
<em>Prov:</em> Lady Clerk, Paris and London (from the artist?)<br/>
<em>Exh:</em> <em>Chagall</em>, Der Sturm, Berlin, June 1914 (works not listed); <em>Chagall</em>, Kunsthalle, Basle, November-December 1933 (108) as 'La Jument Verte', lent by the artist; <em>Marc Chagall: Work on Paper</em>, Guggenheim Museum, New York, June-September 1975 (2, repr.)<br/>
<em>Lit:</em> Franz Meyer, <em>Marc Chagall</em> (London 1964), No.112 in classified catalogue as 'L'Ane Vert', repr., also pp.206 and 315-16<br/>
<em>Repr:</em> Graham Reynolds, <em>A Concise History of Watercolours</em> (London 1971), pl.144
</p><p>
The artist told the compiler on 2 January 1953 that this was the first <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/g/gouache" title="Glossary definition for 'Gouache'"><span>gouache</span></a> he made in Paris, where he had arrived in 1910. The subject-matter, as in many other works of this period, is based on memories of Russia. He recalled that it was among the works which were left at Herwarth Walden's gallery Der Sturm in Berlin in 1914, at the outbreak of the First World War, and which he recovered years later after a long lawsuit. (Chagall's first one-man exhibition, in which this was probably included - there were no less than 40 oils and 160 gouaches, <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/w/watercolour" title="Glossary definition for 'Watercolour'"><span>watercolours</span></a> and <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawings</span></a> - opened at Der Sturm at the beginning of June 1914. According to Franz Meyer, the final settlement was not reached until 1926, when Chagall regained possession of three oils and ten gouaches only).
</p><p>
Oddly enough, it is painted on the back of a faded picture or <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/photograph" title="Glossary definition for 'Photograph'"><span>photograph</span></a> mount inscribed 'GREUZE'.
</p><p>
Lady Clerk, who presented this and the two hand-coloured <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/print" title="Glossary definition for 'Print'"><span>prints</span></a> <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="/art/artworks/N05757" onclick="popTateObjects(event, -1, 'N05757');" title="View details of this artwork"><span>N05757</span></a> and <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="/art/artworks/N05759" onclick="popTateObjects(event, -1, 'N05759');" title="View details of this artwork"><span>N05759</span></a> to the Tate, was the wife of Sir George Russell Clerk, the British Ambassador in Paris from 1934 to 1937. Herself both a painter and composer, her <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>paintings</span></a> included a <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>portrait</span></a> of Mme Chagall which is reproduced on the cover of <em>La Renaissance</em>, VIII, March 1935.
</p><p>
<strong>Published in:</strong><br/>
Ronald Alley, <em>Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists</em>, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, p.110, reproduced p.110


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Catalogue entry
2004-09-14T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults animals: mammals architecture donkey house man people residential woman