M arc Chagall was first struck by the charm of flowers on his first trip to the South of France in 1924, from which point colorful bouquets became enmeshed in his visual vocabulary of personal symbolism. A theme he explored unceasingly throughout the next six decades, Chagall later claimed that he had not known of flowers in Russia, and, in many ways, the blooms came to represent his adoptive country of France.

It was with great reluctance that Chagall left his chosen home for New York in 1941, the situation in Europe having become untenable for the Jewish artist and his family. Whilst the works Chagall painted in the years directly following his arrival in the United States were imbued with dark meditations on the increasingly bleak situation across the Atlantic, it would be his beloved wife Bella’s untimely death in 1944 which would precipitate the sombre period in the artist’s work which would last the rest of decade. Despite the tragic events, Chagall’s return to France in 1948 ushered in a new chapter in his oeuvre characterized by a gentle shift towards the colourful energy of his earlier output. In these works, of which Bouquet à la lune is a prime example, he composed new odes to the mysteries of love and its power to live on, even after death.

Executed in 1949-50, Bouquet à la lune subverts the traditional compositional elements of still life, through which Chagall creates a work which ultimately celebrates the resilience of love in the face of tragedy. In the present work, Chagall enlarges the bouquet to dominate the composition, adding to the otherworldly and dreamlike atmosphere in which two lovers–himself and Bella–reside. Magenta petals and golden sprays illuminate the surrounding night while a dreamer reclines in the base of the vase where a rooster, sprung from the leaves of the bouquet, stands watch from the night sky. Chagall’s flowers became not only a symbolic celebration of life and love, but also a testament to its fragility.

As André Verdet explains: “[Chagall] delighted in their aroma, in contemplating their colours. […] There were always flowers in his studio. In his work bouquets of flowers held a special place… Usually they created a sense of joy, but they could also reflect the melancholy of memories” (in Jacob Baal-Teshuva, ed., Chagall: A Retrospective, Fairfield, 1995, p. 347). Indeed, many of the artist’s most powerful depictions of the bouquet spring from his marrying of its vitality and ephemerality, the flowers all the more precious in that they cannot last forever. Yet, as Chagall’s work would assert for the next four decades, his love for Bella would always remain in bloom.