Birthday

About this work

On 7 July 1915, his birthday, Bella Rosenfeld came to Chagall’s room in Vitebsk with a bunch of flowers. He began painting at once, and inside the picture he rose off the floor, twisted his neck back and kissed her in mid-air. Less than three weeks later they were married. The painting is today in the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Rami Alon kept the painting’s proportions almost exactly. Bella’s dress and Chagall’s coat are the only two dark masses in a room full of colour, above a red carpet.