Born into a Lithuanian Jewish family near Belarus, then part of the Russian empire, Chagall first came to France in 1910. From early in his career, his highly poetic work had strong spiritual and symbolic overtones. After taking refuge in the United States during World War II, he returned to France in 1948. He met his second wife, Valentina Brodsky, in spring 1952 and married her that summer. The union brought the painter great happiness in his autumn years. In the peace of his Provençal home in Vence, he began work on a vast romantic cycle inspired by his beloved “Vava.” The Bride with Blue Face belongs to this period, and shows the bride, her belly covered with flowers in shimmering colors, tenderly embracing her lover. The subject and the lively, airy colors body forth an imaginary world sustained by the lover’s fantasy and his kindly vision of the world.