Bouquet près de la fenêtre 1959 - 1960

Marc Chagall's 'Bouquet près de la fenêtre' is a painting made with oil on canvas, the date of which is unknown. What strikes me first is how the bouquet’s wild tangle mirrors his own process; flowers bloom into abstraction, each brushstroke a petal. There is a layering here, a sense of colours bleeding into each other, creating a dreamy, almost ethereal quality. The blues and greens that dominate the scene are applied in varying densities, some areas translucent, others thickly impastoed, like the bright reds of some of the flowers in the bouquet. The application feels spontaneous, gestural. Look at the way he renders the rooster outside the window, a few simple strokes giving a sense of depth and movement. There’s something almost childlike in its simplicity, yet it captures the essence of the bird. Chagall reminds us that art isn't about perfection, but about feeling, and conveying that feeling through the act of creation itself. Like Kandinsky, another colourist, he explores the spiritual in art, believing that art could transcend the material world.