Bouquet à l'âne jaune

Chagall painted Bouquet à l'âne jaune around 1982, at the culmination of his career, when he lived in Saint-Paul-de-Vence with his wife Valentina Brodsky, and still painted prolifically. His paintings from this period are filled with the freedom he felt at this phase of his life, a mature and accomplished artist in a happy marriage. Indeed, the peace and contentment he enjoyed in his personal life can especially be felt in the later works, having overcome the loss and displacement of the Soviet revolution, two World Wars and the disappearance of his first love, Bella, and prompted him to revisit the theme of embracing lovers surrounded by colorful bouquets of flowers which he had explored since the 1920s. This motif takes on a soft and sensual dimension in the present work, as the couple in the lower right quadrant looks at each other insistently, holding one another tightly, as though attempting to merge into a single being.
In true Chagallian fashion, the elements that make up the composition take on a fantastical and symbolic scale. The colorful bouquet therefore towers at center, raising its crimson red flowers up to the sky and blooming beyond the bright moon which overlooks the scene. The yellow donkey, complementing the background’s soft blues, stands patiently in the back, symbolizing innocence, humility and good-nature—a good omen for the lovers. In the Midi, Chagall had also experimented in a diverse array of media including mosaic and stained glass, which reinvigorated his painterly practice with new techniques. In the present work, the artist used a dry-over-wet technique, alternating the density of his tempera to create a layered feel, bringing light onto the board. As well as stained glass, this glistening effect might have been inspired by the scintillating reflections of the Sun over the Mediterranean, which was now part of the artist’s quotidian.