This work was completed during Chagall's second year in Paris. It illustrates the profound changes he experienced in the free atmosphere of his new surroundings. His style became increasingly dream-like and his craftsmanship developed markedly. Forms revealed a new clarity, precision and sense of reality. This was due not only to maturity but to the intellectual and religious freedom he found in France. It is as if the freedom and light of the city combined with his happiness to blaze forth in these vivid colors that contrast strongly with the somber earth colors of his Russian youth. His individual style was also surely a combination of his own imagination with the influence of van Gogh, Matisse, and of other French artists. References to his Jewish peasant village and life indicate the persistence of his Russian heritage.The man in this painting is dressed in the typical Russian tunic and baggy pants. The pastoral scene is straight-forward in representation and selective in vision. It has none of the Cubist elements of other paintings of this period. In this painting, Chagall has set his own creative vitality against the many turns in man's fate and at the same time speaks of his own life, its tragedy and its gaiety.Referenced Work of Art

1. Mark Chagall, French, 1887- . Man Resting Under a Tree, 1911 (Soldier Lying Under a Tree). Oil on canvas, 28 1/2” x 39”. Signed and dated lower right: Chagall 1911. Accession 61.36.7.CollectionsM. Fuchs, Switzerland; Leigh Block, Chicago; Pierre Matisse, New York; P. D. McMillan, Minneapolis, 30 October, 1953; The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Bequest of Putnam Dana McMillan, 15 November, 1961.ExhibitedLondon, New Burlington Gallery, Modern German Art
   New York, The Museum of Modern Art, 1949