Painted in Paris in 1962, Chagall’s joyful ‘Fenêtre ouverte sur famille au village’ is full of the characteristic poetic motifs that defined his mature period. The use of vibrant colours and dream-like imagery create a canvas overflowing in celebration and happiness, that is simultaneously tinged with a melancholic nostalgia. ‘Fenêtre ouverte sur famille au village’ can be read as a visual autobiography in which Chagall’s past and present merge.

As he had done throughout his career, in his later years, Chagall often returned to his childhood memories of growing up in the village of Vitebsk in Belarus. In the present work, the village is defined by the small houses with angular rooves and domed synagogue in the distance, while a woman holding a child soars above a man reading.

By 1962, Chagall was at the height of his artistic success having produced a number of stained glass windows, murals and the set for 'Daphnis and Chloe' at the Paris opera. Although still spending time in Paris, he was largely based in Vence with his second wife Valentina and had been working on his extensive Biblical Message cycle of monumental oil paintings for a number of years.