Bouc rouge lisant au-dessus des amoureux au repos is a beautiful example of Marc Chagall’s mature romantic and lyrical output. Painted in 1971 when Chagall was settled in the Côte d'Azur in the South of France, the present work displays the influence of the geography his adopted homeland had upon him while beckoning back to his beloved hometown of Vitebsk in present day Belarus. The cypress-like tree, rolling hills and flowering bush in the present work resemble the flora and fauna of the French countryside, rendered in the saturated greens, yellows and blues of the region. Yet the fantastical characters and farm animals recall his agrarian upbringing, grounded in the Jewish faith and the folkloric traditions of his native village. In this work, we see all of Chagall’s characters come together in a single image, as if the painting is a self-referential homage to the artist’s past.

Marc Chagall, Memories of Childhood, 1924. The National Gallery of Canada, Ottowa. Artwork: © Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

Experimenting with stained glass in his late works, Chagall was inspired by the ancient art form with an undeniable modernism with the broad swaths of color and delineated areas of saturation which are apparent in Bouc rouge lisant au-dessus des amoureux au repos. In 1962, Chagall received his first commission for stained glass windows in the Abbell Synagogue in Jerusalem. He went on to design stained glass windows throughout the world, including the famous Peace Window at the United Nations in New York, Reims Cathedral in Northern France, and the church of All Saints in Tudeley, United Kingdom. Using these influences in the present work, Chagall extends his exploration of the intensities and varieties of color to the canvas. In the dreamlike composition of the present work, the definition between foreground and background is blurred by the mixture of colors, situating the goat as hovering above the lovers underneath. Positioning the figures on multiple planes, the present work at once recalls these stained-glass windows, creating an ethereal yet avant-garde scene for which the artist is most well-known.

Marc Chagall, Peace Window, 1964. The United Nations, New York. Artwork: © Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
- 來源
  藝術家遺產管理委員會
  洛桑d'Etraz畫廊
  私人收藏（2002年購自上述來源）
  倫敦，蘇富比，2011 年 2 月 9 日，拍品編號 274
  現藏者購自上述拍賣
- 過往展覽
  Solothurn, Galerie Schaer und Wildbolz, Marc Chagall, January 17–April 25, 1999, no. 316, p. 23 (illustrated)