《農夫生活》

愛藝

Peasant Life （oil on canvas， 101 cm × 80 cm， 1925） is the cheerful picture of country life here. In the foreground a gay young countryman in the blue working jacket of the French peasantry， but with a Russian visored cap， is feeding his amiable little pony a sugar beet. Behind them is the curving panorama of landscape and sky， a great arc in which there is a variety of separate little scenes， regardless of the normal vertical position. To the left， following the extension of the diagonal of the horses neck， is a red Russian log house. Portrayed in true Chagallian fashion， it allows one to see straight inside; there， beneath a hanging lamp， is a small group of men in animated discussion. To the right， along the rounded horizon， a gentleman and his coachman drive off in an elegant chaise. A droll little peasant couple hops and dances in the open field. The whole merry scene might form a general background to the adventures of Gogols arrant swindler Chichikov1， and for all we know he might be the gentleman in the chaise. In fact， all the individual motifs of Russian folklore can be found again in the Gogol etchings.

But the light and the colorful atmosphere in which the objective details of the picture here seem to be bathed are far from Russian. It is the silken blue of the French sky that strikes the basic chord that resounds through the entire orchestration of color; it is the silvery light over the French landscape that casts its luster over the picture like an immaterial fluid. The rich variety of the colors is absorbed in this hazy gleam， and their volume of tone is reduced to a restrained harmony of richly differentiated hues. Chagall as a colorist has suddenly stepped into the tradition of great French landscape painting， which began with Edouard Manet and was introduced into twentieth-century painting by Paul Cezanne and Claude Monet. Not that Chagall would have specifically had in mind this or that great master; first the astonishing encounter with the natural loveliness of France would have affected his sensitive eyes almost unconsciously， and only later would he have perceived the logical connection with the French masters.

Peasant Life is currently located at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery， Buffalo， NY， USA.

《農夫生活》（布面油畫，101厘米×80厘米，1925年）一畫描繪了法國鄉村生活的歡樂場景。前景中，一個快樂的年輕農夫正在給他溫順的小馬喂甜菜，農夫身穿法國農民的藍色工作服，卻頭戴一頂俄式大檐帽。背景是大地與天空的弧形全景——一道巨大的圓弧中包含了相互獨立的不同小場景，每個場景都不在正常的垂直位。圓弧左邊，沿馬脖對角線延伸，是一棟紅色俄式木屋。這是切切實實的夏加爾風格，觀者可一眼看到屋內的情景：一盞吊燈下，一小群男子正熱烈討論著什么。圓弧右邊，一位紳士和他的車夫駕一輛雅致輕便的兩輪馬車，沿弧形地平線行進著;一對小個子農民夫婦在開闊的田野里蹦跳起舞，動作滑稽。這整個歡樂的場面可以作為果戈理筆下的大騙子乞乞科夫行騙冒險故事的大背景，看過果戈里作品的人都知道，馬車里的那個紳士或許就是乞乞科夫。其實，夏加爾在為果戈里作品創作的系列蝕刻銅版畫中再現了俄羅斯民間傳說描述的世間百態。

但是，此畫明亮而多彩的氛圍與俄羅斯社會相去甚遠——畫中的種種細節似乎都沉浸在這片氛圍中。法國天空絲般柔順的藍色，就是貫穿整首色彩管弦樂的基礎和弦;籠罩著法國大地的銀光，像某種無形的流體，讓整個畫面閃閃發光。這朦朧的微光中吸收了豐富的色彩，色調被有意淡化，千差萬別的各種顏色因此構成了一種素凈的和諧。夏加爾擅長運用色彩，他在創作此畫時突發靈感，采用了法國風景畫美妙的傳統畫法。這一傳統始于愛德華·馬奈，由保羅·塞尚和克勞德·莫奈引入20世紀的畫壇。并非夏加爾會特別想到某位繪畫大師，而是他最初與法國自然之美的驚喜邂逅幾乎不知不覺便在他敏感的眼中刻下了烙印，只是后來他才意識到自己與法國大師們順理成章的傳承關系。

《農夫生活》現藏于美國紐約州布法羅市的阿爾布賴特—諾克斯藝術館。