Les Amoureux au Bouquet de Fleurs
Marc Chagall
1935-1937
- YEAR:circa 1935-1937
- MEDIUM:Oil on canvas
- DIMENSIONS:74.9 x 62.5 cm
Introduction
As one of the most important 20th-century surrealist painters representative of the School of Paris, Marc Chagall created a unique, emotionally rich artistic language with an oeuvre of vivid, fantastical, and childlike works. He was praised by Pablo Picasso as the only painter in the world, after Henri Matisse, who truly understood colour. Les Amoureux au Bouquet de Fleurs represents a typical Chagall theme created in signature Chagall style. With abstract, lyrical brushstrokes and bright, high-contrast colours, the painting depicts a bouquet, symbolic of fiery emotions, and lovers — Chagall and his wife, Bella — in an intimate embrace. The disproportionate scale between the two gives the painting a “supernatural” quality, creating a dreamlike atmosphere. It symbolizes the artist’s intense ardour for his beloved as well as a celebration of the love and life of humanity. After the Second World War, Chagall’s life underwent drastic changes, and his works were marked by a sombre blue colour, making it difficult to see the romantic and bright style that characterized his early days.
