The present composition depicts a young couple floating below several bouquets of flowers. Set against the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame, the vista recalls his life in Paris with his first wife Bella, with whom he had lived in Paris. In juxtaposing this Parisian imagery with the lush Mediterranean bouquet, Les Amoureaux aux bouquets rouges combines Chagall’s two lovers: Bella and Vava. With its free-flowing style and bright, translucent colors, the present work is a magnificent example of the effect that the South of France had on Chagall’s art. “The Southern French landscape had astonished Chagall with its wealth of colours and its lyrical atmosphere, had captivated him with the beauty of its flowers and foliage. These impressions found their way into his paintings of that period, refined their peinture and lent them a hitherto unknown radiance” (Walter Erben, Marc Chagall, London, 1957, p. 134).

In reference to Chagall’s output from this period, the artist’s biographer Franz Meyer writes, “The light, the vegetation, the rhythm of life all contributed to the rise of a more relaxed airy, sensuous style in which the magic of colour dominates more and more with the passing years. At Vence he witnessed the daily miracle of growth and blossoming in the mild, strong all-pervading light—an experience in which earth and matter had their place” (Franz Meyer, Marc Chagall, London, 1964, p. 519).