'Les Glaïeuls’ is resplendent with many notable motifs from Chagall’s oeuvre: the basket overflowing with produce, a bouquet, a couple embracing, and animals gently grazing. A testament to the artist’s vibrant use of colour and unique visual language, ‘Les Glaïeuls’ is an exemplar of Chagall’s mature style.

In 1950, the year he painted the present work, Chagall moved to the town of Vence near the Côte d'Azur with his second wife Vava, following the tragic death of his first wife Bella. Recovering from the atrocities of the Second World War, many artists were drawn to the French Riveria at this time, including Picasso and Matisse who lived nearby in the region between Nice and Cannes. The luminous quality of light in the south and integration with this colony of artists invigorated Chagall with a new creative energy, evident in the poetic atmosphere and radiant palette of ‘Les Glaïeuls’. The artist’s deft handling of the bright saturated colours creates a sensuous, dream-like scene that is characteristic of the bejewelled commissions in stained glass that he also created during this period.

Chagall first began to incorporate bouquets into in his work in the mid-1920s, and over the years it became a recurring motif. For the artist they were a truly personal motif, evoking the themes of love and renewal, and here alongside the embracing couple represent his happiness at new love with Vava. On either side of the flowers stand baskets briming with fruit, a reference to abundance and the fertility of life.