Marc Chagall

Sale: Christie's, London, 4th February 2009, lot 36
Private Collection, United Kingdom
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2009

The canvas is not lined and there do not seem to be any signs of retouching visible under UV light. There is a lovely rich impasto and this work appears to be in very good original condition.
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The defining motif of Marc Chagall's exuberant and joyful composition is the bridegroom, affectionately wrapping his arms around his beautiful wife. She is clad in white and wears a veil, conjuring up connotations of innocence and purity. Brides and grooms are a recurring theme within Marc Chagall’s œuvre throughout the span of his eighty-year career. Chagall's first marriage, to Bella Rosenfeld, had an enormous influence on the artist's life and art. Their passionate and happy relationship, ended only with Bella’s death in 1944, and inspired Chagall’s fascination with the subject of two souls forever locked in matrimony. Valentine Brodsky (Vava), his second wife whom the artist married in 1952, could be symbolised by the second bouquet of flowers in the composition. The theme of unification is further reinforced in the background where, imbedded in the blue night sky, it is possible to make out the shape of the Eiffel Tower and the roofs of a village, most likely the artist’s home town of Vitebsk in Russia. Two parts of his life, the past and the present, coexist side by side in perfect union within Les Mariés aux deux bouquets.

Offset against the blue night sky and executed in lively vigorous strokes, Chagall paints a sumptious bouquet of roses alongside a cluster of superb gladioli. Like a display of fireworks, the electric mix of the red, green and yellow of the petals and foliage gives the work a vibrant energy and counterbalances the soft dreamlike atmosphere that pervades the rest of the composition. The depiction of flowers, especially in extensive splendid bouquets, is a recurring motif within Chagall’s œuvre and he returned to the subject often throughout his career. He was first struck by their charm whilst in Toulon in the south of France in 1924. Chagall later claimed that he had 'never known flower bouquets in Russia or, at least, that they were not as frequent as in France’ (quoted in James Johnson Sweeney, Marc Chagall, New York, 1946, p. 56).

Like Henri Matisse, Chagall lived in Saint-Paul-de-Vence for many years of his life and the bold colours employed within his painting owe much to the splendour and luminosity of the Côte d’Azur. His palette moved towards brighter colours, triumphed over by a deep Mediterranean blue which is one of the defining features in Les Mariés aux deux bouquets. After World War II, Chagall executed a variety of impressive large scale stained glass windows. Many of them are dominated by the same deep blues and vibrant luminous colours used in the present work. Colour, especially blue in all its shades and hues, has a vital place in Chagall’s œuvre, and the spiritual significance of blue in religious iconography is paired with mythic, dreamlike qualities to give shape to the artist’s visions. Ultimately Les Mariés aux deux bouquets assimilates a variety of Chagall’s favourite motifs, and can be seen as a significant example of his œuvre.