Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/marc-chagall-881" aria-label="More by Marc Chagall" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Marc Chagall</a>
Bouquet with Flying Lovers
Purchased 1948
actions: expressive
actions: postures and motions
adults
architecture
birth to death
bouquet
cities, towns, villages (non-UK)
countries and continents
couple
embracing
emotions and human qualities
emotions, concepts and ideas
Europe
Europe, Eastern Europe
features
flower
flying
lily
love
man
marriage
mourning
nostalgia
objects
people
places
plants and flowers
Russia
sex and relationships
society
vase
vessels and containers
Vitebsk
window
woman
<p>According to the artist, this picture was begun in the mid-1930s, when he was living in Paris and painting a number of still lifes of flowers. He worked on it at intervals over a period of many years, and the present composition is the final state of three or four. In it two lovers hover behind the dominating vase of flowers, while an angel flies in through the window. To the right is a glimpse of the village of Vitebsk in modern day Belarus, where the artist was born. The painting appears to evoke an atmosphere of happiness, but the artist said that it expressed feelings of loss and nostalgia: his wife Bella had died shortly before the final repainting of the work, and he was passing through a period of mourning.</p><p><em>Gallery label, March 2023</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
12 January 2008 – 19 October 2008
2008-10-19
12 January 2008 – 8 April 2008
2008-04-08
2008-01-12
Bristol Museum & Art Gallery (Bristol, UK)
http://www.bristol-city.gov.uk
19 April 2008 – 13 July 2008
2008-07-13
2008-04-19
Laing Art Gallery (Newcastle upon Tyne, UK)
http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/
24 July 2008 – 19 October 2008
2008-10-19
2008-07-24
National Gallery (London, UK)
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk
2008-01-12
Love
Loan-out
24 June 2011 – 16 October 2011
2011-10-16
24 June 2011 – 16 October 2011
2011-10-16
2011-06-24
Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales (Cardiff, UK)
2011-06-24
Reciprocal Magritte
Loan-out
1 January 2014 – 19 April 2014
2014-04-19
1 January 2014 – 19 April 2014
2014-04-19
2014-01-01
The Wilson - Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum (Cheltenham, UK)
http://www.cheltenham.artgallery.museum
2014-01-01
Embrace
Loan-out
4 November 2022 – 18 June 2023
2023-06-18
4 November 2022 – 19 February 2023
2023-02-19
2022-11-04
Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt (Frankfurt, Germany)
http://www.schirn.de
16 March 2023 – 18 June 2023
2023-06-18
2023-03-16
Henie Onstad Kunstsenter (Høvikodden, Norway)
2022-11-04
Chagall. World in Turmoil
Loan-out
Bouquet with Flying Lovers
support: 1305 × 975 × 23 mm
frame: 1545 × 1215 × 126 mm
Purchased 1948
<div class="text">
<p>According to the artist, this picture was begun in the mid-1930s, when he was living in Paris and <a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting">painting</a> a number of <a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/still-life">still </a><a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/still-life">lifes</a> of flowers. He worked on it at intervals over a period of many years, and the present <a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition">composition</a> is the final state of three or four. In it two lovers hover behind the dominating vase of flowers, while an angel flies in through the window. To the right is a glimpse of the village of Vitebsk in modern day Belarus, where the artist was born. The painting appears to evoke an atmosphere of happiness, but the artist said that it expressed feelings of loss and nostalgia: his wife Bella had died shortly before the final repainting of the work, and he was passing through a period of mourning.</p>
</div>

Display caption
2023-03-22T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>Marc Chagall</b><span> born 1887 [- 1985] </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/chagall-bouquet-with-flying-lovers-n05804" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05804</span></a> </span><b>Bouquet aux Amoureux volants</b><span>
(Bouquet with Flying Lovers) </span><i>c.</i><span>1934-47 </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>Inscribed 'Marc Chagall' b.l. and again on bottom edge of the canvas and on the stretcher</span>
<br/><span>Oil on canvas, 51 3/8 x 38 3/8 (130.5 x 97.5)</span>
<br/><span>Purchased from Mme Ida Meyer-Chagall (Cleve Fund) 1948</span>
<br/><i>Prov:</i><span>
The artist; Mme Ida Meyer-Chagall, Paris, 1948</span>
<br/><i>Exh:</i><span>
</span><i>Marc Chagall</i><span>, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, February-March 1938 (36) as 'Les Amoureux' and dated 1936; [?</span><i>Marc Chagall</i><span>, Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York, October-November 1944 (3) as 'Fiancés au bouquet blanc']; </span><i>Marc Chagall</i><span>, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris, October-December 1947 (not in catalogue); </span><i>Chagall</i><span>, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, December 1947-January 1948 (65) as 'Bloemen' (Flowers) and dated 1947; </span><i>Marc Chagall</i><span>, Tate Gallery, February 1948 (73) as 'Bouquet of Flying Lovers' and dated 1947</span>
<br/><i>Lit:</i><span>
Ronald Alley, 'Notes on some Works by Degas, Utrillo and Chagall in the Tate Gallery' in </span><i>Burlington Magazine</i><span>, C, 1958, p.172, repr. p.170, figs.31 and 32; Franz Meyer, </span><i>Marc Chagall</i><span> (London 1964), p.475, No.769 in classified catalogue, repr.</span>
<br/><i>Repr:</i><span>
</span><i>Illustrated London News</i><span>, CCXXIII, 1953, p.662; </span><i>The Artist</i><span>, November 1953, p.57 </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>This picture was purchased in 1948 from the Chagall exhibition at the Tate Gallery, when it appeared in the catalogue as 'Bouquet of Flying Lovers' (1947). There is, however, a label of the Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, on the stretcher, which shows that it was in Chagall's exhibition there in 1938 under the title 'The Lovers': it was then dated 1936. Chagall himself told the compiler on 3 January 1953 and 7 April 1956 that it was begun in Paris probably as early as 1933-4 at a time when he was <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> a number of <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/still-life" title="Glossary definition for 'Still life'"><span>still lifes</span></a> of flowers; he worked on it at intervals over a period of many years and the present <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a> must be the third or fourth state. Through the courtesy of Franz Meyer and Mme Ida Meyer-Chagall, a <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/photograph" title="Glossary definition for 'Photograph'"><span>photograph</span></a> has been obtained of an earlier version, said to be the first state, taken when the picture was in the hands of Pierre Matisse, Chagall's agent in America [reproduced p.113; not reproduced here]. This shows important differences. The flowers are the same, but the surrounding areas are different. Instead of being set in an ambiguous space - part open-air, part indoors - the action takes place inside a room with a big window on the right. Instead of the lovers who sweep into the picture, there are two rather larger heads of lovers embracing which emerge at the top of the bouquet, as if their bodies were concealed behind it; and in the top right-hand corner an angel flies through the window with one hand extended towards them (these motifs have been more or less fused in the final composition). The glimpse of the village is rather different, there is no cock and the composition is much more loosely constructed, without any <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/cubism" title="Glossary definition for 'Cubism'"><span>Cubist</span></a> stylizations. All these features can be seen very clearly in X-ray photographs of the picture itself and there is no trace of any further composition - but for that matter the final composition does not register in the X-ray either, so the possibility of intermediate stages cannot be ruled out. Franz Meyer states that the re-elaboration was carried out at High Falls, near Rosendale, in the northern part of New York State, where Chagall lived from 1946 to 1948. </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>The first version is typical of Chagall's idyllic compositions of lovers rejoicing in their happiness. When he came to repaint the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/canvas" title="Glossary definition for 'Canvas'"><span>canvas</span></a> in 1947, however, his first wife Bella had died and he was passing through a period of mourning. As he stated in front of the picture in January 1953, 'The Bouquet with Flying Lovers' is one of a group of works which express his feelings of loss and nostalgia; the village on the right is Vitebsk, his birthplace. There would appear to be a clear allusion to the marriage, Bella in bridal dress sweeping into the picture like a comet (and also like a disembodied spirit), Chagall himself turning to embrace her as they move towards the open windows of a house where a fiddle with a head half-human, half-donkey, evokes an atmosphere of happiness. But in the background the dramatic intrusion of a crowing cock seems to indicate the passage of time and a recall to reality. </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>When pressed to give a detailed explanation of the content, the artist replied, however: 'Say that I work with no express symbols but as it were subconsciously. When the picture is finished, everyone can interpret it as he wishes.' </span>
<br/></p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/><span>Ronald Alley, </span><i>Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists</i><span>, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, pp.112-14, reproduced p.113 </span>
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-15T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: expressive actions: postures and motions adults architecture birth to death bouquet cities, towns, villages (non-UK) countries and continents couple embracing emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas Europe Europe, Eastern Europe features flower flying lily love man marriage mourning nostalgia objects people places plants and flowers Russia sex and relationships society vase vessels and containers Vitebsk window woman