La fenêtre bleue

The 1960s for Chagall was a decade characterised by intense creative activity. He received several large-scale public commissions including the commission for the Jerusalem Windows, whose unveiling in Paris in 1961 cemented his reputation as one of the most influential architectural designers of the day. Chagall had from the outset established himself as a colourist, but it was not until this latter part of his life that his colour achieved its full radiance and plenitude in his work. Chagall saw his work in stained glass as like painting in light, an extension of the luminous and intense palette he employed when depicting the dramatic contrasts and subtle harmonies of a bouquet of flowers. 'He said that when he painted a bouquet it was as if he was painting a landscape. It represented France to him. But the discovery was also a logical one in the light of the change taking place in his vision and pictorial interests. Flowers, especially mixed bouquets of tiny blossoms, offer a variety of delicate color combinations and a fund of texture contrasts which were beginning to hold Chagall's attention more and more' (J.J. Sweeney, Marc Chagall, New York, 1946, p. 56). Alongside the two bouquets of flowers in La Fenêtre bleue are some familiar elements of Chagall's iconography; the chicken, transformed in this case into the female form, the artist himself, floating out from behind the flowers and, through the window, below a crescent moon, the artist's beloved Saint-Paul de Vence, to where he had moved in 1966.