14 Rare Works by Marc Chagall, June 7, 2015

Marc Chagall  was born in Vitebsk, Byelorussia, in 1887 to a poor Hasidic family. The eldest of nine children, Marc Chagall studied first in a heder before moving to a secular Russian school, where he began to display his artistic talent. With his mother's support, and despite his father's disapproval, Chagall pursued his interest in art, going to St. Petersburg in 1907 to study art with Leon Bakst. 

Marc Chagall 
1887-1985 (Russian, French) 
L'oiseau bleu, c.1960 
oil, Chinese ink snd gouache on masonite 
h:26 w: 18 cm. 
estati signature stamp upper right 

Influenced by contemporary Russian painting, Chagall's distinctive, child-like style, often centering on images from his childhood, began to emerge. From 1910 to 1914, Marc Chagall lived in Paris, and there absorbed the works of the leading cubist, surrealist, and fauvist painters

Marc Chagall 
1887-1985 (Russian, French) 
Roméo et Juliette, 1964 
color lithograph, the deluxe edition, before letters, aside from the edition of 200, published by the Tourist Francaise, Paris, printed by Mourlot, Paris 
h:63 w: 99 cm. 
signed and dated lower right 

Strong and often bright colors portray the world with a dreamlike, non-realistic simplicity, and the fusion of fantasy, religion, and nostalgia infuses his work with a joyous quality. Animals, workmen, lovers, and musicians populate his figures; the "fiddler on the roof" recurs frequently, often hovering within another scene. Chagall's work of this period displays the influence of contemporary French painting, but his style remains independent of any one school of art. He exhibited regularly in the Salon des Independants.

Marc Chagall 
1887-1985 (Russian, French) 
Recto - Nocturnal visit (left); Profile of the artist (right); 
Verso - Summer (left); Winter (right), c.1950 
pencil and pastel crayons on paper (double-sided work) 
h:11 w: 17 cm. 
titled and inscribed several times 

During the war, he resided in Russia, and in 1917, endorsing the revolution, he was appointed Commissar for Fine Arts in Vitebsk and then director of the newly established Free Academy of Art. The Bolshevik authorities, however, frowned upon Chagall's style of art as too modern, and in 1922, Marc Chagall left Russia, settling in France one year later. He lived there permanently except for the years 1941 - 1948 when, fleeing France during World War II, he resided in the United States. Chagall's horror over the Nazi rise to power is expressed in works depicting Jewish martyrs and Jewish refugees. 

Marc Chagall 
1887-1985 (Russian, French) 
XX Siecle - Hommage a Marc Chagall, 1969 
color lithograph 
h:50 w: 36 cm. 
signed lower right and numbered '28/75' lower left 

Marc Chagall 
1887-1985 (Russian, French) 
Les ateliers de Chagall (portfolio with text by Robert Marteau), 1976 
color lithgraph as frontispiece, published by Mourlot 
h:43 w: 32 cm. 
signed lower right, numbered '23/250' lower left 

Marc Chagall 
1887-1985 (Russian, French) 
Nature morte bleue, Paris, 1957 
color lithograph 
h:39 w: 28 cm. 
signed lower right, numbered '58/90' lower left 

Marc Chagall 
1887-1985 (Russian, French) 
Le Ciel des Amoureux, Paris, 1964 
color lithograph on arches paper 
h:76 w: 56 cm. 
signed lower right, numbered '9/30' lower left 

Marc Chagall 
1887-1985 (Russian, French) 
Couple et panier de fruits, Paris, April, 1976 
color lithograph 
h:66 w: 53 cm. 
signed lower right, numbered '26/50' lower left 

Marc Chagall 
1887-1985 (Russian, French) 
Acrobats at play, 1963 
color lithograph 
h:49 w: 37 cm. 
signed lower right and numbered '6/40' lower left 

Marc Chagall 
1887-1985 (Russian, French) 
S'étant attardé à Gaza chez une courtisane, et guetté par les habitants qui voulaient le tuer, Samson enlève les portes de la ville, les charge sur son dos et va les déposer au sommet d'une montagne (Judges, XVI, 1-3), 1958 
hand colored etching 
h:54 w: 39 cm. 
initialled lower right, numbered '49/100' lower left 

Marc Chagall 
1887-1985 (Russian, French) 
Le Couple, pl.12 (from Songes), 1981 
etching with aquatint, published by Cramer, Geneva 
h:52 w: 38 cm. 
signed lower right, numbered 'VII/X' lower left 

Marc Chagall 
1887-1985 (Russian, French) 
Scene biblique pour Marcel Arland, 1957 
Chinese ink, wax and pastel crayons on frontispiece of the book Verve, vol.VIII, no.33 et 34, Paris, 1956 
h:35 w: 51 cm. 
signed, dated and inscribed lower right

Marc Chagall 
1887-1985 (Russian, French) 
Peintre et son chevalet, 1974 
tempera, Chinese ink and pastel crayons on frontispiece of book Chagall Lithographe, vol.IV 
h:49 w: 31 cm. 
signed lower right, dated and inscribed lower left 

Marc Chagall 
1887-1985 (Russian, French) 
Untitled, pl.25 (from Louis Aragon: Celui qui dit les choses sans rien dire), 1976 
etching with aquatint, edition of 25, published by Maeght, Paris 
h:44 w: 36 cm. 
signed lower right, numbered '15/25' lower left 

Tamar Daughter-in-Law of Judah from The Bible Series, 1960	Paradise 1 from The Bible Series, 1960	Esther from The Bible Series, 1960	Exhortation Of Joshua SOLD	Adam and Eve are Banished From Paradise from The Bible Series, 1960
Hagar and Ishmael in the Desert from The Bible Series, 1960	Spirit of the Circus L'ame Du Cirque		Daphnis & Chloe
Chagall Poster Rider on a Red Horse	Chagall Poster Zircus	Flute Player "Le Joueur de Flute"		Derrière le miroir n° 182