In ‘Peintre de profil et son soleil aux couleurs de Paris’ Chagall celebrates the joy of love and artistic expression. A couple are depicted in a vision of bold colours above what appears to be the skyline of Paris delicately drawn below them. Chagall depicts himself as the character of the painter holding a palette from which blue erupts, in reference to the explosion of artistic creativity in Paris. At this time, recovering from the trauma of the Second World War, Paris saw a resurgence of art and culture, drawing artists back into the hubbub of the city.

This period was also one of great change for Chagall, with the artist marrying his second wife Vava two years prior in July 1952. Vava became Chagall’s muse, creating many depictions of her over their life together. In this work, Chagall limits his palette to only the pure colours of the rainbow – violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red. The incredible vibrancy of the tones is so recognisable to Chagall’s art, and bestows the pastel with the same intensity as his larger scale works.

In 1953, the year before he created ‘Peintre de profil et son soleil aux couleurs de Paris’ Chagall began what is now known as his ‘Paris Series’, that would last the next three years. As seen in the present pastel, these richly coloured and affirmative works were a celebration of the artist’s new found stability and contentment, and saw Paris take over from Vitebsk in the artist’s consciousness.