The present work illustrates Chagall’s most popular theme of lovers, one that he used throughout his entire life.  L’Acrobate au bouquet depicts two lovers embracing at the bottom of the composition while an acrobat with flowing black hair swoops above them holding a large bouquet of flowers with the radiant glow of the sun above them.    Andrew Kagan comments that “For the poet Chagall, the essential functions of a painting were symbolic, not formal.  For Chagall the work of art was more than anything else a means to record his sensations, his memories, his moods, his feelings about his life” (Andrew Kagan, Marc Chagall, New York, 1989, p. 7). 

When this picture was painted Chagall was embarking on a new phase of his life. In 1952 he met and married Valentine Bródsky who would become the central female figure in his paintings.  The lovers depicted in the present work could be an expression of the loཧve between the artist and Valentine, known as Vava, while a bouquet, a symbol of abundance, is brought to them. Chagall was also beginning to experience success and popularity.  In April of 1953 he traveled to Turin for the opening of a large retrospective of his work at the Palazzo Madama.  The mood that is conveyed in this work certainly reflects the joy, contentment, and peace that Chagall was feeling.