Nature morte et fleurs devant St-Paul de Vence

With its gentle atmosphere and soft, playful palette, Nature morte et fleurs devant St-Paul de Vence is a powerful embodiment of the whimsical character of Chagall’s unique artistic vision during the 1960s, as he reached the very apex of his career. Dominated by the sprawling bouquet of red and pink anemone flowers, the composition explodes in a riot of vibrant tones, the star-shaped blooms a masterful study of dramatic colour contrasts and subtle harmonies. Chagall’s dynamic brushstrokes and scintillating palette invite us into the kaleidoscopic realm of his creative vision, inspired by the multifarious hues of blossoming natural subject matter and the warmth of the sunlight of the gorgeous Côte d’Azur. Mirroring the sun’s position in the aqueous sky, the bright, yellow chicken to the upper left casts rays of light and shimmers throughout the painting.

Chagall first introduced floral still-lifes in his painting in the mid-1920s. Having returned to France from his native Russia in 1923, the artist developed a new feeling for nature, and was particularly enchanted by flowers, finding them to be the embodiment of the French landscape. From this time onwards, vases or bunches of flowers took a greater prominence in Chagall’s work, often appearing as the central subject of a painting. The Greek writer Tériade, who published many of Chagall’s etchings, wrote in 1926, ‘To see the world through bouquets! Huge, monstrous bouquets in ringing profusion, haunting brilliance. Were we to see [Chagall] only through these abundances gathered at random from gardens… and naturally balanced, we could wish for no more precious joy!’ (E. Tériade, ‘Chagall and Romantic Painting’, in J. Baal-Teshuva, ed., Chagall. A Retrospective, Connecticut, 1995, p. 136). Chagall called his flower paintings of this period, ‘exercises in the equation of colour and light’ (Chagall, quoted in F. Meyer, Marc Chagall, London, 1964, p. 369), and his depiction of blossoming bouquets remained central to his experimentations with colour, a demonstration of his great skill as a colourist.

This was a period of great productivity and expanding creativity for Chagall—recognised internationally as one of the most important artists of his generation; much of his time during the 1960s was occupied by large scale public commissions in a diverse array of media, from tapestries to mosaics, stained glass windows to grand murals. His imagination was immediately reinvigorated and fueled by these experiments, each project sparking a renewed interest in certain motifs and themes as he pushed his creative vision in new directions.

An explosion of colour, Nature morte et fleurs devant St-Paul de Vence demonstrates the artist’s great love and mastery of pigment. Françoise Gilot, one of Picasso’s lovers and muses, wrote that the Spanish master once said, ‘When Matisse dies, Chagall will be the only painter left who understands what colour really is… Some of the last things he’s done in Vence convince me that there’s never been anybody since Renoir who has the feeling for light that Chagall has.’ (Picasso quoted in F. Gilot and C. Lake, Life with Picasso, New York, 1964, p. 282). Filled with brilliant light and color, Corbeille de fruits aux amoureux is an image that demonstrates Chagall’s ceaseless enthusiasm and creativity. The recognisable tower and fortifications of the Saint-Paul de Vence village are glimpsed in the distance of this work, a clein d’ œil from Chagall to the inspiring environment of the south of France, the location of his artistic studio. The red hues of the flowers in this work are echoed in the floral arrangement that adorn Chagall’s table in the photograph below.