For the first time after a 38-year break, "Portrait of Marc Chagall" by his teacher Yudel Pen is being exhibited in Vitebsk

July 7, Vitebsk / Diana Kurilo - BELTA /. For the first time since 1974, "Portrait of Marc Chagall" by his teacher Yudel (Yuri) Pen is being exhibited in Vitebsk. An exhibition of a single painting opened today at the art museum, a branch of the Vitebsk Regional Museum of Local Lore, in honor of the 125th anniversary of Marc Chagall, a BELTA correspondent reports. "Portrait of Marc Chagall" is one of Yudel Pen's most famous and widely reproduced works, currently housed in the collection of the National Art Museum of Belarus. Since the re-evacuation of Pen's pre-war gallery from Saratov to Vitebsk (by order of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee), and then the relocation of the returned collection to Minsk, the portrait is being exhibited in Vitebsk for the second time. Pen had many students who became famous artists, but none of them surpassed the fame of Marc Chagall. Yudel Pen painted his portrait in 1914, when Chagall had years of work and study in Paris behind him, had held his first solo exhibition in Berlin, and had gained European fame. The portrait depicts a 27-year-old Chagall in a wide-brimmed hat with a palette – a kind of bohemian Parisian artist, but his intelligent, sad eyes suggest that behind the deceptive appearance lies the same sensitive romantic, in love with life, as he probably remained forever in the memory of his teacher. Alongside the painting, the exhibition hall features an exposition including original documents from the collection of the Regional Museum of Local Lore: a postcard with a letter from Chagall to Pen from Paris in 1937, a certificate issued in 1918 to Pen signed by the commissioner of the art sub-department of the department of public education Chagall, as well as other archival materials. Currently, the Vitebsk Regional Museum of Local Lore holds 183 oil and graphic works by Chagall's teacher, and part of Pen's collection is kept in the National Art Museum. -0-