L’Étable (The Stable)

Marc Chagall’s "The Stable" ("L’Étable," from the Daphnis and Chloe series, 1961) is a vibrant color lithograph that evokes the wonder and mystery of a rural stable through Chagall’s unmistakable palette and fantastical lyricism. Rendering the stable interior with a wash of blues and yellows, the image centers on a gentle, dreamy figure surrounded by a parade of brightly colored horse heads—red, pink, yellow, blue, and green—whose surreal expressions reflect the dreamlike qualities of Chagall’s vision. Overhead, smaller mythic figures and soft halos of light transform the barn into a theater of imagination. The scene radiates quiet dignity, melody, and a childlike sense of discovery, typical of Chagall’s approach to pastoral themes.

Artistic and Social Context Created as part of the forty-two lithograph suite "Daphnis and Chloe" (1957–1961), commissioned by publisher Tériade and printed by Fernand Mourlot, "The Stable" visualizes episodes from the ancient Greek romance written by Longus. The suite describes love, innocence, and rural life; Chagall traveled through Greece for inspiration, absorbing the brightness and tranquility of local landscapes and village life. Here, Chagall tenderly blends pastoral motifs with his own distinctive poetic style, placing animals alongside ambiguous, floating figures to conjure a world where myth, memory, and daily life merge.

Interpretation and Meaning "The Stable" uses luminous color and imaginative forms to elevate the everyday into a realm of fantasy and possibility. The parade of horses suggests both the playfulness and the nobility of rural existence, while the central figure—neither fully adult nor child, neither worker nor dreamer—embodies the innocence and open-hearted wonder at the core of the Daphnis and Chloe story. The ambiguous floating forms add to the sense of mythic transformation, where nature, art, and human feeling are in constant dialogue.

Size The original size of "The Stable" lithograph from "Daphnis and Chloe" is approximately 42 × 32 cm (16.5 × 12.5 inches) for the image area, with the sheet size varying by edition