Chagall, Marc & Bella Chagall.

The speed with which France collapsed under German assault in the Summer of 1940 was astonishing - yet the attachment of Marc Chagall to his French home blinded him to the urgency of the situation. Eventually Chagall and his wife Bella were spirited to the United States a year later through the celebrated efforts of two Americans, the journalist Varian Fry and the Marseilles-based diplomat Hiram Bingham IV. The present group of letters indicate that Chagall was immensely reliant upon Morris Troper in his capacity of European director of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. In particular, Chagall and his wife were desperately concerned about the fate of their only child, Ida Chagall, who, along with her husband was in danger, stuck in Europe and lacking urgently needed exit paperwork. Contained in these letters are heartbreaking, pressing demands to intervene in favor of Chagall’s daughter and son-in-law. Eventually, Ida and her husband (along with a large case of her father’s paintings) found passage on the notorious refugee ship the SS Navemar. Further letters to Troper beseech he use his good offices to relieve the terrible conditions on board the Navemar - numerous passengers being sick, and without sufficient food or water. <<Accompanied by:>> Secretarial copies of related correspondence, including one concerning the sale of a painting by Chagall (1941).