The Lovers
Set on an external wall of the Fondation’s bookshop, this mosaic was the first work created by Chagall with this material (1964-65). Mosaicists Heidi and Lino Melano collaborated on making it. Dedicated to Aimé and Marguerite Maeght, the mosaic represents the founders welcoming visitors. Fondation Maeght also preserves the preparatory model (gouache on paper) which served as the basis for the mosaic.
Marc Chagall (1887-1985)
Aimé Maeght met Marc Chagall for the first time in October 1947, at the preview of his retrospective at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, organised by Jean Cassou as if to provoke and celebrate the painter’s return after his years of exile in the United States.
“Ida Chagall took me to visit her father and I was dazzled to discover, in his atelier, the gouaches painted in the USA and Mexico: sixty superb pictures, which I was lucky enough to take back with me to rue de Téhéran. Together, we drew up the plans for the first exhibition at the gallery. That meeting marked the beginning of a close and trusting collaboration, and an unwavering friendship,” Maeght explained. The exhibition took place in March 1950. That same year, Chagall moved to Vence, near Saint-Paul-de-Vence.
