.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
拍品专文
Les Glaïeuls is a luminous testament to Chagall’s artistic vitality. Bathed in a jubilant yellow, this work poetically and joyously weaves together emblematic subjects from the artist’s iconography—the profusion of fresh flowers and woven baskets teeming with produce, paired with the ethereal embracing lovers floating above a provincial town. In a blue and white ceramic vase dotted in floral patterns, red flowers spring from the dazzling yellow background, as blue and green hues echo in delicate flourishes across the sheet. The orange sun washes the work in warmth, and animals graze peacefully in the background. These deeply personal motifs recur across the artist's rich oeuvre, deftly depicted with a vibrancy which attests to Chagall’s love and mastery of color, and tinged with symbolism which brings his work to life.
Chagall first began introducing floral still lifes in his oeuvre in the mid-1920s, and they soon gained greater prominence within his work. After returning to France from his native Russia in 1923, the artist discovered a newfound appreciation for nature and was particularly charmed by florals, associating them with the verdant French landscape which had become his home in the period between the world wars. More than a reference to the natural world, these bounteous bouquets became a compelling visual embodiment of the profound and enduring feelings he had for the great loves of his life.
Chagall often portrayed his beloved first wife Bella Rosenfeld alongside resplendent bouquets, conveying his deep love and devotion for her through the radiant blossoms. The two had met when he was a young man still living in Vitebsk and were married in 1915. During their wartime exile in New York, a sudden illness led to Bella’s passing in September 1944, devastating the artist. Her presence lingered in his compositions for the rest of Chagall’s life, veiled and perennially young. Virginia Haggard Neil, younger than Chagall by 28 years and unhappy in her own marriage, became the grieving artist’s housekeeper in the months after Bella’s death. A relationship soon developed, and his auburn-haired young paramour soon entered his compositions as well. Despite the birth of a son, however, the relationship soon faltered, and the disparity in their ages and religious backgrounds led to a separation in 1952. That same year, through Ida, Chagall’s grown daughter with Bella, the artist met Valentina Brodsky. Affectionately nicknamed Vava, as a Jewish, Russian-born divorcée in her mid-forties, she provided a stable and familiar presence for the artist, and the two were married in July after a brief courtship. Their shared culture and past allowed the artist to reminisce on his home and youth, resurrecting the icons of his life in saturated colors and sweeping compositions. Reflecting this mentality, Les Glaïeuls dances with vivacity, the fertile promise of Chagall’s life with Vava given tangible form in the overflowing baskets of fruit.
At the time the present work was executed, the artist and Vava had settled in the medieval French hill-top town of Saint-Paul de Vence. Throughout the remainder of Chagall’s halcyon life in the south of France, he merged images and symbols of the three women in his work. Their consolidation formed an idealized representation of love as a perfect union of passion and tranquil companionship. Reflecting on themes of love, memory, and romance, Les Glaïeuls radiates with the serenity of the artist’s later life and resonates with the nostalgia and joy he imbued in his art.
Chagall first began introducing floral still lifes in his oeuvre in the mid-1920s, and they soon gained greater prominence within his work. After returning to France from his native Russia in 1923, the artist discovered a newfound appreciation for nature and was particularly charmed by florals, associating them with the verdant French landscape which had become his home in the period between the world wars. More than a reference to the natural world, these bounteous bouquets became a compelling visual embodiment of the profound and enduring feelings he had for the great loves of his life.
Chagall often portrayed his beloved first wife Bella Rosenfeld alongside resplendent bouquets, conveying his deep love and devotion for her through the radiant blossoms. The two had met when he was a young man still living in Vitebsk and were married in 1915. During their wartime exile in New York, a sudden illness led to Bella’s passing in September 1944, devastating the artist. Her presence lingered in his compositions for the rest of Chagall’s life, veiled and perennially young. Virginia Haggard Neil, younger than Chagall by 28 years and unhappy in her own marriage, became the grieving artist’s housekeeper in the months after Bella’s death. A relationship soon developed, and his auburn-haired young paramour soon entered his compositions as well. Despite the birth of a son, however, the relationship soon faltered, and the disparity in their ages and religious backgrounds led to a separation in 1952. That same year, through Ida, Chagall’s grown daughter with Bella, the artist met Valentina Brodsky. Affectionately nicknamed Vava, as a Jewish, Russian-born divorcée in her mid-forties, she provided a stable and familiar presence for the artist, and the two were married in July after a brief courtship. Their shared culture and past allowed the artist to reminisce on his home and youth, resurrecting the icons of his life in saturated colors and sweeping compositions. Reflecting this mentality, Les Glaïeuls dances with vivacity, the fertile promise of Chagall’s life with Vava given tangible form in the overflowing baskets of fruit.
At the time the present work was executed, the artist and Vava had settled in the medieval French hill-top town of Saint-Paul de Vence. Throughout the remainder of Chagall’s halcyon life in the south of France, he merged images and symbols of the three women in his work. Their consolidation formed an idealized representation of love as a perfect union of passion and tranquil companionship. Reflecting on themes of love, memory, and romance, Les Glaïeuls radiates with the serenity of the artist’s later life and resonates with the nostalgia and joy he imbued in his art.