Marc Chagall’s ‘Étude pour ‘Le mariage’’ is an ode to love. Created shortly after the loss of his wife Bella, during this period Chagall reflected upon the joy of marriage and companionship. In an image celebrating union, here a couple float away on their wedding day, serenaded by musicians, animals and dancers. The subject matter was an enduring one for Chagall, with the artist creating works centred on a wedding for decades to come.

In ‘Étude pour ‘Le mariage’’ Chagall artfully plays with colour, using red, yellow, blue, purple and green against the washes of black to define certain figures and objects - the groom being drenched in a blue of lapis lazuli allows for the bride in white to stand out. Below the couple are the rooftops of Chagall’s childhood village of Vitesbk. Yearning for the nostalgia of the past, during this period Chagall regularly recalled his birth place with its distinct pitched rooves. Chagall further highlights the couple by framing the work himself, creating a defined border around the scene, as if capturing one fixed moment in a wedding photograph. It allows for the eye to be drawn into the centre and confidently defines the boundaries of the image.

‘Étude pour ‘Le mariage’’ is a study for an important larger oil painting from 1947-1950 entitled ‘Le mariage’. The late 1940s was a time of great career success for Chagall. In 1946 he was given a major retrospective at Museum of Modern Art in New York which then travelled to the Art Institute of Chicago and in 1947 had a retrospective at Musée National d’Art Moderne.