A Critical Analysis of “ I and the Village”, by Marc Chagall, 1911, oil on canvas, 76” x 60”
My first impression of this canvas is very colorful and dreamy. It gives me a feeling that I am in a
very colorful dream.
The canvas has many lines that are clear in details. Horizontal and vertical lines can be found in
the background with house that are drawn. In addition, there are diagonal and circular lines that are
drawn on the animal faces, roads, and humans representation. There are many geometric shapes that
are found throughout the canvas. It also has a wide color varieties of red, white, blue, green, yellow, and
black. As for the texture of this canvas it is a two-dimensional piece of canvas with a rough surface, but it
gives out a very smooth look. Value is very warm in the background, but it gets much brighter with
objects and faces that are closer. It gives me a very abstract sense of spaces.
This form of art work brings a lot of a.raction to a viewer. The painter intension of this canvas
was to show that he live in a farming village. The people that live in the village relies on their animals.
This is the reason that the two faces of animal and human are equally facing each other. There is a
divided pa.ern in the art work. Everything are equally divided in the middle to symbolize that both man
and animal are equal. The amazing rhythm is drawn with everything going toward the village. It calls out
to viewer to head toward the village. Emphasis of the canvas is the big circle drawn in the middle. It is a
circle that is divided in half with the face of an animal on the le1 and human face on the right. It
emphasize that man and animal equally relies on each other to survive. There is a symmetrical balance
to everything in the canvas. I think that unity about this artwork is everything is pair together. It show a
person feeding the animal and people are collecting resources from the animal. In addition, the house
are drawn up-size-down in pairs. The one thing that I see contrast in the painting is the person with
sadness under the church. I think the artist want to portrait a church is a place of sadness and sorrows.
My overall evaluation of this canvas is hopefulness. It tells that this artist love his village. From
the way that he connect everything into a divided pa.ern of life. At first glance the canvas show a
complex art that has been drawn. The artist use a lot of rhythm and pa.ern to get his meaning out to
the viewer. The deep meaning of this canvas is drawn with clear view of the artist intention to get viewer