Le bouquet de Chagall

While he was finalising the stained glass for Mainz Cathedral, Marc Chagall gave a small stained-glass panel to the master glazier at the Simon Marq atelier in Reims with whom he had worked for many years. The Vitromusée has been able to acquire this exceptional and exquisite piece and to produce a documentary retracing its history, based on the memories of the original recipient. This glass bouquet by Chagall is one of the rare stained-glass panels by the artist that was not designed as part of a building. It occupies the central place in this special exhibition of the latest important acquisitions by the Museum.

Like a rainbow-coloured bouquet, these selected works illustrate the great diversity of the Museum’s interests: stained glass from the Renaissance to current times; reverse painting on glass in the form of pictures, jewellery, and miniatures by Lombardian artists of the late Middle Ages, or folk art through to the landscape study by Robert Zund; and contemporary sculptures and initial acquisitions for the new department of art glass.

Many of the exhibits, like Chagall’s dedication of his gift to the master glazier, are linked to the creative process of artworks: sketches and preparatory drawings, tools and informative documents, all coming from the estates of various artists and ateliers. A magnificent stained glass panel, donated by a Fribourg glass painter to the town of Romont for its new town hall in 1541, came onto the international art market, and has now returned to its roots, with the help of the Vitromusée. This discovery is related in the book on the historic stained glass of the Canton of Fribourg which the Vitrocentre Romont, the Museum’s research partner, will present at the exhibition.