Chagall's Ceiling: The Dream Bouquet

People say some visitors come to the Opéra Garnier just for this one work: Marc Chagall's ceiling painting, The Dream Bouquet (Le Bouquet de rêve). It pays tribute to the great composers of opera and ballet, depicting scenes from their operas and ballets. Landmarks of Paris such as the Opéra Garnier itself, the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe and Place de la Concorde are tucked in throughout.

Chagall had an international background. Born in 1887 to a Jewish family in Russia, he was originally named Moishe Zakharovich Shagal. In 1910, at just 23, he came to Paris to study art. He fell in love with the city and began using the French-style name Marc Chagall in place of his birth name. He developed his own style under the influence of Picasso, of the Cubists, and Matisse, of the Fauves, both active in early 20th-century France. Cubism is an approach that breaks an object into pieces seen from several angles and reassembles them; in Picasso's paintings, for instance, the body faces front while the face is in profile. Fauvism is a style that uses bold, pure colors in a rough, expressive manner, and Matisse's paintings are the classic examples. Some call Chagall "Cubism plus Fauvism," but he himself reportedly didn't want to be pinned down to any one art movement.

The ceiling has the colorful, dreamlike mood that is Chagall's signature. He painted it at the suggestion of André Malraux, then France's Minister of Culture. The ceiling had previously held a painting by the French artist Jules-Eugène Lenepveu. When Malraux came to see the ballet Daphnis et Chloé, he found the existing ceiling an eyesore and proposed a new one. Chagall happened to be designing the costumes for that ballet, and Malraux liked his work so much that he entrusted him with the ceiling on the spot. With three assistants, Chagall completed the huge painting in eight months, and it was unveiled in 1964.

Chagall said he wanted the composers' operas and ballets to look as if reflected in a mirror in a beautiful dream. The painting divides broadly into six zones, each showing the ballets and operas of different composers along with buildings of Paris.

In the center of the red zone is a blue Eiffel Tower, and at its upper right, among the small figures, is a couple holding a child: Chagall, his wife and their son, a touching sign of his deep love for his family. Chagall's son recognized his father by the yellow dot on the man's face, and later, on learning that the baby in the painting was himself, was delighted.

In the white zone, the red building at upper left is the Opéra Garnier, and beside it an angel holds a bouquet. Chagall loved painting bouquets. Asked why he painted so many, he reportedly answered, "The best gift I can give to someone I love is a bouquet." To Chagall, a bouquet meant love. He also said, "The only color that gives true meaning to life and art in our lives is the color of love."

When the painting was unveiled, there was a lot of criticism: why was a Russian-born painter's work in a historic French building, people asked, saying it didn't fit. Today, though, it is recognized as a must-see at the Opéra Garnier for the way it renders masterpieces of the Paris Opera and Paris landmarks in Chagall's own style.