Author: Rev. David Kyllo, Director of Chaplaincy, RIC, in consultation with Vivian R. Jacobson, chairman, Friends of the Chagall Tapestry, responsible for bringing this artwork to Chicago.

The Chagall Tapestry at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC) is one of three Marc Chagall works in the city of Chicago. The stained glass windows at the Art Institute of Chicago and the mosaic at the bank plaza at Monroe and Dearborn streets are the others.

The tapestry at RIC is called “Job” after the biblical person, Job, who endured huge suffering and loss. He has been called, on more than one occasion, “the patron saint of people with disabilities.”

The tapestry is 11.5 feet wide and 13 feet high. It depicts scripture from the book of Job (Job 14:7): “For there is hope of a tree if it be cut down, that it will sprout again. And that the tender branch thereof will not cease.” This writing is printed on the back of the piece and is the largest printed scripture verse in the city of Chicago.

In the tapestry, Job is on the right side (slide 02). Behind him (slide 03) is his wife, dressed in red, who told him to “Curse God and Die” (Job 2:9). Below them (slide 04) are Job’s three friends (Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite).

The corners of the tapestry tell Marc Chagall’s story of Faith. In the lower right (slide 05) is a person reading from the Scriptures. In the lower left (slide 06) is a rabbi also reading from the Scriptures. In the upper left corner (slide 07) is a depiction of the crucifixion of Jesus. This configuration of Christ represents, for Chagall, the suffering of all mankind.

In the upper right corner is a depiction of the city of Jerusalem (slide 08). Marc Chagall felt that most people who go through the experience of a disability rely on their faith to carry them through the experience, and Jerusalem is the focal point of many faiths.

Between the two upper corners is the angel Gabriel (slide 09), coming to bring good news to Job.

Below Gabriel is a goat (slide 10). Chagall was born and raised in a Hassidic Jewish family in Russia. That aspect of the Jewish faith believed that all things in nature are holy. The goat represents the holiness of animals and nature.

This tapestry is dedicated to all disabled people of the world. In the upper left corner (slide 11), Chagall made a gathering of people in the shape of an evergreen tree. In this grouping, one can see, either in a real or illusionary sense, various things used by people with disabilities, such as a wheelchair, canes, various braces (orthotics) and artificial limbs (prosthetics), for those with limb loss.

Since Marc Chagall died before the weaving of the tapestry was completed, the weaver, Yvette Cauquil-Prince, took some license in changing the brilliant colors of purple and blue, characteristic of Chagall’s work, into the darker colors seen at the top (slide 12).

The signature of Marc Chagall is in the lower left corner and the signature mark of Yvette Cauquil-Prince is in the lower right corner.

Once the tapestry was completed, policies of the French government complicated the release of the artwork. Approval for its shipment to Chicago took more than nine months. The Friends of the Chagall Tapestry, led by Vivian R. Jacobson, were finally able to convince the French government that it belonged in the lobby of RIC because this was an artwork dedicated to all disabled people in the world. It was then released and put into its present location on June 20, 1986, where it continues to bring its message of Hope.