In this lithograph from the Bible series published by Tériade in 1960, Marc Chagall brings to life one of the darkest and most foundational stories in human history: the tale of Cain and Abel, the two first sons of Adam and Eve, born at the dawn of time, already burdened by the legacy of original sin. Two brothers, two offerings made to God, two destinies set apart: one, a gentle shepherd, whose sacrifice is accepted; the other, a proud tiller of the soil, wounded by divine rejection. And it is here, in that gulf, that jealousy is born, followed by anger, and then by murder—the first blood spilled by human hands, not in defense, but out of wounded pride and solitude.
Chagall captures the exact moment when violence erupts. The gesture is primal, almost animal. Abel lies on the ground, his face lifeless, mouth slightly open as if to speak a word that will never come. Cain towers above him—not victorious, but tense, bewildered, as though swept away by a force greater than himself. This biblical scene becomes the archetype of human transgression, of our failure to accept the other, of the collapse of fraternity. The fratricide is, in Chagall’s hands, a cry against the divine order, against the perceived injustice of a God who accepts one offering and refuses another, without explanation.
The saturated yellow background evokes a barren land, a world devoid of tenderness. The dark tree looming over the scene is not the Tree of Life, but rather that of fate, of exile, of man’s radical solitude. The vivid red of the bodies and outlines is not merely the blood of murder: it is the fire of wrath, the primal wound of a humanity still naked, uncultured, yet already capable of the worst.
In revisiting this tale, Chagall does not illustrate—he interprets. He treats the Bible not as a religious text, but as a living myth, rich in psychological and existential truth. For behind Cain and Abel stands every man, confronted with the desire for recognition, the pain of rejection, the temptation of violence. And in this lithograph—so physical, raw, almost Fauvist—Chagall condenses the full weight of human condition at its origin: the conflict between love and injury, between ideal brotherhood and real hatred.
