Singing above St. Remy

• Van Gogh: “Wheat Field and Cypress,” 1889. National Gallery, London.
• Chagall: “The Sources of Music,” 1967. Drawings for the paintings at the Metropolitan Opera House, NYC.
• “The Triumph of the Music,” 1967. Drawings for the paintings at the Metropolitan Opera House, NYC.
• “The Concert,” 1957. Galerie Maeght, Paris.

Combining Vincent van Gogh’s “Wheat Field and Cypress” (1889) of his St. Remy period and musical fairies from Marc Chagall’s universe, T. F. Chen has duplicated a “Wedding above Village” in an entirely different light.

Van Gogh’s cypresses, olive trees and mountains still remain, yet bright sunshine beams upon them instead of a crescent moon and stars. A ripe wheat field extends on the foreground of the landscape while the original blue-green sky with moving clouds has been replaced by an ocean of radiant light, with Chagall’s fairy angels playing instruments and dancing about. The entire painting breathes with a mystical correspondence of color, form, and movement.

Marc Chagall’s marvelous artwork with its highly original imagery explores a world of delightful, mystical fantasy. His works celebrate life in a radiant spirituality. As a poet and storyteller in plastic expression, Chagall commemorates our sense of the miraculous and mysterious in life, while embracing the exuberance of nature in Love as this painting of Chen’s, “Singing above the Fields,” may witness.

– T. F. and Julie Chen