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White Crucifixion

Painting of crucifixion, surrounded by scenes of Nazi violence against the Jewish community.
© 2018 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

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  • Painting of crucifixion, surrounded by scenes of Nazi violence against the Jewish community.

Date:

1938

Artist:

Marc Chagall
Born Vitebsk (formerly Russian Empire, now Belarus), 1887–1985

About this artwork

The 1938 painting White Crucifixion represents a critical turning point for the artist Marc Chagall: it was the first of an important series of compositions that feature the image of Christ as a Jewish martyr and dramatically call attention to the persecution and suffering of European Jews in the 1930s.

In White Crucifixion, his first and largest work on the subject, Chagall stressed the Jewish identity of Jesus in several ways: he replaced the loincloth with a prayer shawl, his crown of thorns with a headcloth, and the mourning angels that customarily surround him with three biblical patriarchs and a matriarch, clad in traditional Jewish garb. At either side of the cross, Chagall illustrated the devastation of pogroms. On the left, a village is pillaged and burned, forcing refugees to flee by boat and the three bearded figures at bottom left—one of whom clutches a Torah—to escape on foot. On the right, a synagogue and its Torah ark go up in flames, while below a mother comforts her child. By linking the martyred Jesus with the persecuted Jews and the Crucifixion with contemporary events, Chagall’s painting passionately identifies the Nazis with Christ’s tormentors and warns of the moral implications of their actions.

Status

On View, Gallery 395

Department

Modern Art

Artist

Marc Chagall

Title

White Crucifixion

Place

France (Artist's nationality)

Date

1938

Medium

Oil on canvas

Inscriptions

Signed and dated, l.r.: "MArc ChAgAll/ 1938"

Dimensions

154.6 × 140 cm (60 7/8 × 55 1/16 in.)

Credit Line

Purchased with funds provided by Alfred S. Schuler

Reference Number

1946.925

Copyright

© 2018 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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