Portrait of E.B.G.

The story

E.B.G. is Elise Basil Goulandris. She and her husband Basil built the collection you are standing inside, over decades of friendship with the greatest artists of the century. Chagall painted her here in 1969, in his unmistakable dream register — a face suspended among flowers and floating figures. Look closely: the portrait is affectionate rather than formal. This is a painting made by a friend, not commissioned by a client. It is, in a quiet way, the emotional centre of the whole museum.