Artist: Marc Chagall
Russia
Place of Creation: Paris, France
In 'To my Betrothed', painted at the same time (time he painted Interior II), Chagall evolved a more contemporary approach to the same subject, though in the treatment of sexuality this painting is once again archetypal. Here, the full vitality of the subject is developed (albeit the compositional structure is distinguished by its total tranquillity within the terms of the visual medium): the woman twines about the shoulders of the bull-headed man like a snake, spitting into his face, while the man, with every appearance of calmness, grasps at her leg with a gesture that suggests desire rather than defence. The tale and its symbolic content are inseparable. They have become this way not only through the unity of human and animal, but particularly through the woman's radial movement, a demonstration of power which seems impossible for the man to escape from. If 'Interior II' could still be viewed as a harmless genre scene, that was no longer feasible now. Indeed, it was only after protracted argument that Chagall was allowed to exhibit this painting at the 1912 spring salon at all. He was accused of painting pornography. What gave this picture its bold suggestiveness was the simple compositional variation of arranging the motifs in circular form about a centre rather than stringing them in one linear direction. It was a procedure Chagall had learnt from Cubism. In fact, Cubism was to solve many of Chagall's early technical problems.(Chagall By Ingo F. Walther, Rainer Metzger)
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