Grand bouquet et fruits devant la fenêtre à Paris by Marc Chagall

Marc Chagall
1887-1985 | Russian

Grand bouquet et fruits devant la fenêtre à Paris
(Large bouquet and fruits in front of the window in Paris)

Stamped with signature “Marc Chagall" (lower right)

Pastel and gouache on Japan paper

“When Matisse dies, Chagall will be the only painter left who understands what colour really is.” —Pablo Picasso

One of Marc Chagall’s most iconic and enduring subjects, this floral still life is an exceptional display of the artist’s visionary talent. Brimming with vibrant hues and lush textures, Grand bouquet et fruits devant la fenêtre à Paris epitomizes why Chagall is one of art history’s most loved colorists.

Beginning as early as the mid-1920s and lasting throughout his career, Chagall created masterful floral still lifes as one of his perennial subjects. Inspired by the vibrancy of the French landscape, compared to his native Russia, the artist saw his flowers as a chance to explore a color palette that could capture a complex range of symbolic meanings and emotions. This composition, with a particularly bright array of blooms from the Parisian flower markets rendered with energetic linework, is the perfect expression of joyful effervescence, captured just after the unveiling of one of Chagall's most significant commissions: the ceiling of the Opera Garnier in 1964.

The pinks, purples and reds that dominate this work’s brilliant palette also reveal Chagall’s interest in rendering the romantic love he experienced with his first wife Bella, who floats gracefully above the bouquet. This moving composition brings to life Chagall’s reminiscence of Bella in his 1947 autobiography, “I had only to open my bedroom window, and blue air, love, and flowers entered with [Bella]. Dressed all in white or all in black, she has long been flying over my canvases, guiding my art.”

Marc Chagall was born in Vitebsk, Russia, to a large, close-knit Jewish family of herring merchants. He began studying painting in 1906 under the famed artist Yehuda Pen. In 1907, he moved to St. Petersburg and joined the school of the Society of Art Supporters. In 1910, Chagall relocated to Paris to be near the art community of the Montparnasse district, and he would eventually become a French citizen. Amongst the turmoil of the 20th century, including the Soviet regime and the outbreak of WWII, Chagall would continue to move between Russia, France and the United States throughout his life. Chagall died at the age of 97 in Saint-Paul de Vence, France, in 1985, leaving behind an incredible body of work that continues to demand the highest attention in the art world. Today, his works belong to the collections of prestigious museums across the globe including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Guggenheim Museum in New York, Tate Modern in London and the National Museum of Modern Art in Paris.

This work is accompanied by its certificate of authenticity issued by the Comité Marc Chagall.

Circa 1965

Paper: 39" high x 24" wide (99.06 x 62.23 cm)
Frame: 55" high x 40 3/4" wide x 3" deep (139.70 x 103.51 x 7.62 cm)

Provenance:
Estate of the artist
M.S. Rau, New Orleans