In Japan, July 7 is a special day. It is the festival of Tanabata, the one night of the year when two celestial star-crossed lovers -- the Weaver (Vega) and the Cowherd (Altair) -- are said to cross the Milky Way to meet.
July 7 is also the birthday of Marc Chagall (1887-1985), a painter whose work is infused with a deep sense of love. So it is particularly apt that July 7 also marks the end of a major exhibition of Chagall's work that opened last week at Ueno's Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum.
Chagall's great love was his first wife, Bella, whom he married in 1915 and who continued to inspire him even after her death in 1944. The artist's feelings are particularly apparent in the celebrated "L'anniversaire" (1923), which shows him floating through the air and twisting round to kiss his beloved. The dreamlike, almost surreal composition of this work perfectly captures the sense of intertwining elation that characterizes romantic love.