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Lot Essay
The Comité Marc Chagall has confirmed the authenticity of this work.
Painted in 1926, Fleurs près de la fenêtre was executed at the time of Marc Chagall's first encounter with the Mediterranean landscape. Resting on a table, a bouquet of lilac and orange flowers springs its blossoms towards an open window. The warmth and enveloping tones of the bouquet reverberate in the room, creating a sharp contrast with the terse, bright light outside the window. Dynamically painted and dominating the composition, the vase of flowers vibrates with life, asserting itself almost as a portrait, rather than a still life.
Fleurs près de la fenêtre belongs to a series of flower paintings that Chagall executed while staying at Mourillon, near Toulon. The stay was part of a trip to Southern and Central France that Chagall undertook with his beloved wife Bella and their daughter Ida. The bouquets of fresh and colourful flowers that Bella would bring back from the local market served Chagall as symbolic bridges to the luminous, vibrant Mediterranean landscape. Mixing gouache and oil, in Fleurs près de la fenêtre Chagall explored overlaid, saturated layers of colours, upon which he embroidered smaller details in thicker oil paint, a technique he exploited particularly in this period. The still visible first sketch and the freedom and vitality of the colour strokes show the great, enthusiastic rapidity of execution with which Chagall captured the subject.
The same year he painted Fleurs près de la fenêtre, Chagall was commissioned by Ambroise Vollard to create a series of illustrations of La Fontaine's Fables, while the Gallery Reinhardt in New York hosted the artist's first exhibition in the United States. Later in his life, Chagall confessed to the art critic Franz Meyer - who became the artist's son-in-law - that the 1920s were "the happiest time of [his] life" (M. Chagall quoted in J. Wullschlager, Chagall, Love and Exile, London, 2008, p. 333). Echoing the light-hearted atmosphere artists tried to recreate in Southern France during the post-war period and punctuated by Chagall's first experience of the light of the Mediterranean, Fleurs près de la fenêtre perfectly captures this joyous, unique moment in the artist's life.
Painted in 1926, Fleurs près de la fenêtre was executed at the time of Marc Chagall's first encounter with the Mediterranean landscape. Resting on a table, a bouquet of lilac and orange flowers springs its blossoms towards an open window. The warmth and enveloping tones of the bouquet reverberate in the room, creating a sharp contrast with the terse, bright light outside the window. Dynamically painted and dominating the composition, the vase of flowers vibrates with life, asserting itself almost as a portrait, rather than a still life.
Fleurs près de la fenêtre belongs to a series of flower paintings that Chagall executed while staying at Mourillon, near Toulon. The stay was part of a trip to Southern and Central France that Chagall undertook with his beloved wife Bella and their daughter Ida. The bouquets of fresh and colourful flowers that Bella would bring back from the local market served Chagall as symbolic bridges to the luminous, vibrant Mediterranean landscape. Mixing gouache and oil, in Fleurs près de la fenêtre Chagall explored overlaid, saturated layers of colours, upon which he embroidered smaller details in thicker oil paint, a technique he exploited particularly in this period. The still visible first sketch and the freedom and vitality of the colour strokes show the great, enthusiastic rapidity of execution with which Chagall captured the subject.
The same year he painted Fleurs près de la fenêtre, Chagall was commissioned by Ambroise Vollard to create a series of illustrations of La Fontaine's Fables, while the Gallery Reinhardt in New York hosted the artist's first exhibition in the United States. Later in his life, Chagall confessed to the art critic Franz Meyer - who became the artist's son-in-law - that the 1920s were "the happiest time of [his] life" (M. Chagall quoted in J. Wullschlager, Chagall, Love and Exile, London, 2008, p. 333). Echoing the light-hearted atmosphere artists tried to recreate in Southern France during the post-war period and punctuated by Chagall's first experience of the light of the Mediterranean, Fleurs près de la fenêtre perfectly captures this joyous, unique moment in the artist's life.