# Chagall's handwriting **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 4, 2007, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chagalls-handwriting/428762 "2007-12-04T05:58:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![E.Thorp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@E.Thorp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E.Thorp)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2007, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chagalls-handwriting/428762/1 "2007-12-04T05:58:32Z")
Sorry for the small reproduction – the only one I could find on the web – but can anyone read the word above Chagall’s name in [this image](http://www.imj.org.il/images/shop/daynamic/poster/331099.jpg)? Even at poster size it baffles me. ---
**Author:** ![askeptic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@askeptic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/askeptic)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2007, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chagalls-handwriting/428762/2 "2007-12-04T06:12:39Z")
Payne? ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2007, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chagalls-handwriting/428762/3 "2007-12-04T06:16:02Z")
Well I’ve got no chance of reading it if I lurk from a PDA It’s the size of a stamp! ---
**Author:** ![E.Thorp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@E.Thorp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E.Thorp)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2007, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chagalls-handwriting/428762/4 "2007-12-04T06:19:49Z")
I don’t think it’s Payne: more likely it’s something French (Chagall’s language as an artist). Obviously the image size is a problem. My best guess so far is “fugue” but Googling hasn’t turned up much. ---
**Author:** ![askeptic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@askeptic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/askeptic)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2007, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chagalls-handwriting/428762/5 "2007-12-04T06:30:07Z")
[QUOTE=E. Thorp] I don’t think it’s Payne: more likely it’s something French (Chagall’s language as an artist). Obviously the image size is a problem. My best guess so far is “fugue” but Googling hasn’t turned up much. [/QUOTE] Alexander Payne is a very famous French director. ---
**Author:** ![E.Thorp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@E.Thorp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E.Thorp)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2007, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chagalls-handwriting/428762/6 "2007-12-04T06:38:23Z")
[QUOTE=askeptic] Alexander Payne is a very famous French director. [/QUOTE] Really? No whoosh? The only Alexander Payne I know about is a film director, but he’s American – not to mention a good deal younger than Chagall. ---
**Author:** ![askeptic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@askeptic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/askeptic)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2007, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chagalls-handwriting/428762/7 "2007-12-04T06:59:34Z")
[QUOTE=E. Thorp] Really? No whoosh? The only Alexander Payne I know about is a film director, but he’s American – not to mention a good deal younger than Chagall. [/QUOTE] Sorry I am an idiot. I found Paris, je t’aime on a french web site with payne listed as the director. With my poor french I thought he was French from my reading of the site. I was wrong. Sorry. I still think it says Payne on the poster. But that’s not based on anything but my viewing of your link. Basically you can disregard anything I say, it is late and I was just trying to help. Apparently poorly… but it was not a whoooosh. ---
**Author:** ![E.Thorp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@E.Thorp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E.Thorp)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2007, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chagalls-handwriting/428762/8 "2007-12-04T07:03:48Z")
Thank you for not whooshing me. (You could’ve, you know; I’m pretty gullible.) I think I’ll take a photo of my poster (yes, it’s hanging in my living room, and I’m embarrassed that I can’t read my own wall) so I can zoom and enlarge. Even with my meager photographic skills I can probably get something legible. ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2007, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chagalls-handwriting/428762/9 "2007-12-04T07:41:54Z")
I can’t make anything of it at this size, but it looks tantalizingly like it _could_ be Hebrew script… if you can get a larger image I’ll be able to confirm or deny this. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2007, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chagalls-handwriting/428762/10 "2007-12-04T14:50:55Z")
It looks like it might be something in Russian. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2007, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chagalls-handwriting/428762/11 "2007-12-04T15:47:07Z")
Do you know the name of this image? ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Purl_McKnittington)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2007, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chagalls-handwriting/428762/12 "2007-12-04T15:47:53Z")
It’s Urdu! Just kidding. Is it possible it says “payer” or “payeur”? That’s French for pay and payer, respectively. It’s awfully small, but I’m not really seeing Payne. ---
**Author:** ![Ponster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponster/32/17081_2.png) [@Ponster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponster)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2007, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chagalls-handwriting/428762/13 "2007-12-04T16:30:23Z")
He was a Russian Jew by birth so as others have suggested, don’t assume it’s French. ---
**Author:** ![Einmon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Einmon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Einmon)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2007, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chagalls-handwriting/428762/14 "2007-12-04T16:52:14Z")
I’m reading “Per Jane”, but I am notoriously blind as a bat and bad at handwriting. And Google doesn’t turn up anything about Jane, so I’m probably completely wrong. ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2007, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chagalls-handwriting/428762/15 "2007-12-04T17:04:53Z")
Could it be Jayne? Longshot: “Mary Jayne Gold was an American socialite who helped painters Marc Chagall, Max Ernst and about 2,000 other Jews and anti-Nazis escape from France during World War II.” ---
**Author:** ![MisterThyristor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecccb3/32.png) [@MisterThyristor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MisterThyristor)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2007, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chagalls-handwriting/428762/16 "2007-12-04T17:15:12Z")
[QUOTE=Zebra] Do you know the name of this image? [/QUOTE] Apparently, it was originally done as a poster for La Bibliotheque Nationale (of Paris) in 1970. However, all of the copies of the poster that I have found online don’t show the additional word above the artist’s signature or, in fact, the signature itself. If you do a search on “la bibliotheque nationale” (which is the only name I have found for this) and “chagall” you can find many copies of this online but not with the writing. ---
**Author:** ![E.Thorp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@E.Thorp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E.Thorp)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2007, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chagalls-handwriting/428762/17 "2007-12-05T06:16:19Z")
I took a picture of the word in question [and posted it online](http://www.flickr.com/photos/ethorp/2087737429/). Can anyone read it? I doubt the writing is Cyrillic or Hebrew, but I’m happy to be surprised. Thanks again, E. ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2007, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chagalls-handwriting/428762/18 "2007-12-05T08:42:50Z")
My hunch was right – it’s “Chagall” in Hebrew – שאגאל. 🙂 ETA: I left you a comment on the Flickr photograph, too. ---
**Author:** ![E.Thorp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@E.Thorp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E.Thorp)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2007, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chagalls-handwriting/428762/19 "2007-12-05T14:21:17Z")
Thanks! I wouldn’t have guessed that in a million years. Given my obvious ignorance of Hebrew: I’d always thought/heard that the Hebrew language was written without its vowels. Is that not true? ---
**Author:** ![E.Thorp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@E.Thorp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E.Thorp)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2007, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chagalls-handwriting/428762/20 "2007-12-05T14:32:23Z")
Mssd th dt wndw… Seems it’s _ancient_ Hebrew that was written vowelless. Right? Ignorance fought. Many thanks to all who squinted at the first image and to **Noone Special** who so quickly deciphered the second. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chagalls-handwriting/428762.md?page=2)