Marc Chagall 1887-1985
Chagall was born in Vitebsk, Russia in 1887. After studying in St Petersburg he went to Paris where he befriended the avant-garde circle of artists. In 1917 he returned to his native Vitebsk where he was made Director and Commissar of Fine Art. However, his fantasy-based work irked the conservative authorities so he left for Moscow to design for the new Jewish Theatre.
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Returning to Paris in 1923 he met the art-dealer Vollard for whom he illustrated Gogol’s Dead Souls and the Fables of La Fontaine. Between 1941-47 he moved between occupied France and the USA, eventually settling near Nice. Chagall was a prolific artist, his work reminiscent of Jewish life, bible stories and of the folklore from his early years in Russia. He died in 1985.
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Lithograph, 1962
Unsigned
Paper size: 92 x 151cm
£4950 Framed
A set of twelve original lithographs, designed in 1962 as designs for the Jerusalem windows. Printed in Paris by the renowned Atelier Mourlot, some of which are in twenty colours. The designs of the windows are: Judah, Levi, Simeon, Reuben, Zebulun, Benjamin, Isaachar, Joseph, Dan, Gad, Asher and and Nephtali. The Twelve Tribes lithographs after Chagall were based on preliminary sketches for the Jerusalem stained-glass windows. In 1959 Chagall was commissioned to design twelve stained glass windows for the new synagogue of the Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Centrein Jerusalem. The number twelve is considered spiritual and sacred. These magnificent windows symbolise the twelve sons of Jacob from whom sprang the twelve tribes of Israel.
Keen that his designs be more widely disseminated, Chagall was closely involved with the production of the set of lithographs created by the world famous Mourlot. The publisher, James Parton, recalled how the artist stood beside the lithographer to watch the single sheets pass through the hand-fed stone press, one colour at a time, to catch every nuance of shading. He threw out the whole first set of gravure plates: the yellow, he felt, was off a shade.