The Peasant at the Well, 1952-53

The Peasant at the Well [Le Paysan au puits I] (1952) is among Chagall's earliest shaped hollow pieces and the first in one of his rare series. Like those that followed, such as Blue Donkey [L'Âne bleu] (1954) and Lovers and the Beast [Les Amoureux et la Bête] (1957), this work comes in four colors and decorative variations, reflecting a change in mood from one version to the next. The molded, shaped piece combines sculptural details with the body of a vase, offering a complex interplay between decoration and usefulness. The torso of the farmer, who is wearing a flat cap, "emerges from the jug as the animal body does from the human body" in Self-portrait with a Clock. Like a Baroque protrusion, it forms a spout, while the arm of a female figure, engraved and drawn on the other side, serves as a handle. These incarnated figures, like Adam, a lump of clay into which the Creator breathed the breath of life, produce a tension that is both formal and semantic. The Peasant at the Well seems to go beyond the conventional form of the vase, while the earth motif reflects its symbolic richness on several levels.

 The back-to-the-land theme is legible through a form of continuity between the variations in the decoration. In two versions of the series, a church and Vitebsk’s cottages can be made out under the peasant. In two others, the medieval tower overlooks the landscape around Saint-Paul-de-Vence. Describing one of the variants, Jacques Thirion emphasizes Chagall's happiness at returning to a peaceful life and the special light of Provence: "With its bright yellow harmony symbolizing the light of Provence, enhanced by light blue, green, brown, and black, The Peasant at the Well (1954, h. 0.325; l. 0.24, sic) naively celebrates the joy of country life. The spout, in the form of a peasant leaning over sideways, is next to the familiar view of Vence, the “new Vitebsk,” where Chagall rediscovered “the heartbreaking sweetness of life” after the tumult of the Second World War.

In addition to the transpositions between physical and mental geographies, the motif of the peasant tilling the soil becomes a metaphor for Chagall's work. He patiently kneaded the slippery, supple yet resistant clay, which is symbolically laid bare by the choice of the terracotta color for one version of Peasant at the Well, where the etched lines and parts left in reserve reveal all its brightness. The peasant’s energetic, playful pose echoes the craftsman's joy at mastering his ideal clay: "Anyone who dreams of clay knows this perfect clay as obvious to the hand as the perfect solid is to the eyes of the geometer.” With its disarming air of pastoral lightness combined with visual sophistication, The Peasant at the Well celebrates the wholesome efforts of the hand tilling the soil and the dreaming mind transforming matter.