A new exhibition at Musée Marc Chagall takes a behind-the-scene look at the artist at work, and one of his most controversial creations.
When 75-year-old Marc Chagall was commissioned with painting the ceiling of the Opéra de Paris in 1962, he was an established and highly respected artist with an international reputation. Yet, there were vocal opponents who objected to a modern artist touching Charles Garnier’s nineteenth-century monument. Others attacked more viciously: a Russian Jew, they said, had no business decorating French national heritage. However, the public’s fears of a foreigner desecrating the hallowed halls of the Opéra Garnier were assuaged when the ceiling was finally unveiled in 1964. The audience and media alike were awed and responded with rapturous applause.
Video via The Journey on YouTube
Now the sketches for this monumental oeuvre arrive in Nice for Chagall à l’œuvre, an exhibition in two installments at the Musée national Marc Chagall from 7 February through 17 May and from 23 May to 21 September. On loan from Centre Pompidou, the 141 pieces were originally a donation by the artist’s granddaughters, Bella and Meret Meyer. Several companion events round out the unique experience.
Presented in three groups, the exhibition is a testament to the richness of Chagall’s creative output. Part One traces the ceiling’s development through forty-one sketches and maquettes, showing how he tested the way colour would read from below, and how to divide monumental space without fracturing it. He then deliberately constructed his work by dividing the ceiling into five abstract, coloured sections and working towards the final composition, honouring celebrated composers whose work had been performed on the venerable Garnier stage.
The second part, featuring sixty-four designs for Stravinsky’s Firebird ballet, show him tackling theatrical scale in 1945, solving problems of costume and curtain that had to register across a darkened auditorium whilst dancers moved.
Courtesy Musées nationaux du XXe siècle des Alpes–Maritimes / Musée national Marc Chagall – Marc Chagall, études de costumes pour L’Oiseau de feu de Stravinsky, « L’Oiseau de feu » ; « Le Monstre bleu et jaune, garde de Katchaï » ; Gouache et pastel 1945
Finally, the twelve ceramics and sculptures, along with twenty-four collages, allow an intimate look into the artist’s relentless curiosity for new techniques and experimentation in the 1950s to 1970s, ranging from clay and stone to collages of cut-out papers and fabrics.
Chagall’s connection to Nice and his eponymous museum runs deep. The Russian-born painter had a lifelong affinity for France and moved to Paris in 1923. After fleeing wartime Europe for the United States, he returned to France in 1949, choosing to settle in the hills of Vence near Nice. He was intimately involved in the planning and conception of the Musée Chagall, which would open in 1973 to house his Biblical Message cycle. He also insisted on including a concert hall – unusual for an art museum but essential to his vision. The stained-glass windows he designed bathe the space in blue light. He later also painted the lid of the resident harpsichord. The building reflects his conviction that art functions within lived experience, not isolated contemplation.
Video via British Pathé on YouTube
Numerous companion events, conferences and concerts at the Niçois Chagall museum and associated venues complement the exhibition, and several collaborations with Italian museums share the cultural wealth. Marc Chagall in Mosaico completed its run in January at the Museo d’Arte in Ravenna, examining the fourteen mosaic projects Chagall created between 1958 and 1986. A larger exhibition, Marc Chagall: Entre poésie et spiritualité, opens on 19 June and runs through 25 October at the archaeological museum in Aosta, Italy. Nice contributes over 120 works from its collection to explore the artist’s fascination with biblical themes.
The value of preparatory works lies in what they expose about artistic decision-making. Finished pieces present themselves as inevitable, as though they could only ever have existed in that form. Sketches and maquettes reveal the testing, the rejections, the paths not taken. They show an artist working through problems most viewers never consider: how to make colour function at distance, how to balance monumentality with intimacy, how to honour tradition whilst transforming it. That Chagall faced accusations of cultural vandalism whilst meticulously paying tribute to French musical heritage, and also refused to take any payment for his work, adds a certain irony. The controversy presumed disrespect; the preparatory works prove otherwise. Great art transcends the prejudices that attempt to constrain it, and these sketches document an artist who understood that from the beginning.
Up there in my painting I wanted to reflect, like a mirror in a bouquet, the dreams and creations of the singers and musicians, to recall the movement of the colourfully attired audience below, and to honour the great opera and ballet composers… Now I offer this work as a gift of gratitude to France and her École de Paris, without which there would be no colour and no freedom.”
– Marc Chagall
VISITOR INFORMATION
Chagall à l’œuvre
Musée national Marc Chagall, Nice
7 February–17 May 2026 (Part 1)
23 May–21 September 2026 (Part 2)
Admission €10 (reduced and group rates available)
CONTACT DETAILS
Musée national Marc Chagall
Avenue Docteur Ménard
06000 Nice
Tel: +33 (0)4 93 53 87 20
www.musee-chagall.fr
PHOTO CREDITS
- Lead image © RIVIERA BUZZ
- All other images and videos as credited
Leave a comment