Russian-born artist Marc Chagall once said that "the dignity of the artist lies in his duty of keeping awake the sense of wonder in the world." And it is difficult to conceal one’s wonder beneath Chagall’s magnificent ceiling in Paris’s Opéra Garnier, a masterwork that was unveiled on this day in 1964.
The nearly 2,600-square-foot canvas, which required a staggering 440 pounds of paint, was not initially so well received, however. When French Minister of Culture André Malraux announced the commission for the project in 1960, many were outraged by the prospect of a modernist painter—and a foreign-born one, at that—taking his brush to the ceilings of Charles Garnier’s neo-Baroque masterpiece. But Chagall’s passion for the project won out.
Completed over the course of eight months in various Paris studios, the canvas commemorated contemporary and historic composers, actors, and dancers, evoking the transformative power and beauty of art through the rich color and composition for which Chagall was known. The work quickly won over many early doubters and became a benchmark for integrating modernism into France’s historic landmarks: A year later André Masson would be commissioned to create a new ceiling for the Théâtre de l’Odéon. Chagall’s ceiling is now one of the Opéra’s most popular attractions.
