Oil on canvas
168.3 x 107.7 cm
Musée national d’art moderne - Centre de Création Industrielle, Centre Georges Pompidou, entrusted to the Musée national Marc Chagall

Resurrection preserves the memory of the bitter disappointment following the Russian Revolution from the original ensemble: while, at the top, a figure brandishes a flame above the crowd to celebrate the advent of freedom, on a pale background of snow at the bottom, a Jew is already clinging to the Torah. In the transformed painting, Lenin is replaced by Christ on the Cross – stretching the full length of thecanvas: the tragic history of the Jewish people continues and their only hope seems to come from God’s love. Chagall is depicted, palette in hand, upside-down along Christ’s legs – which translates his sense of turmoil.