Cirque d'Izis First Edition - Marc Chagall - Bauman Rare Books

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Cirque d'Izis

Marc CHAGALL | Izis BIDERMANAS

Item#: 60204 We're sorry, this item has been sold

Cirque d'Izis

Cirque d'Izis

Cirque d'Izis

“PROFOUND, MOVING AND EXTRAORDINARY”

(BIDERMANAS, Israel [aka Izis] and CHAGALL, Marc). PRÉVERT, Jacques. Le Cirque d'Izis. (Monte Carlo): André Sauret, (1965). Folio, original red cloth, pictorial endpapers, original pictorial dust jacket by Chagall, original printed acetate wrapper.

First edition of this ingenious collaboration between poet, painter and photographer, with four original color lithographs of circus acts by Chagall and 76 stunning héliogravures of life in the circus, up-front and behind the scenes, by “Izis” Bidermanas.

"Izis was a great dreamer and a wanderer both of the streets and in his mind. He believed in photographs that seemed simple, but were in fact full of ambience, a 'poetic realism' that was much in vogue. His vision was gentle and warm without being sentimental" (New York Times). A great friend of the poet Jacques Prévert, who wrote the text for this and other of his books, Paris Match photographer Israel "Izis" Bidermanas spent a career capturing Paris and Parisians. Le Cirque d'Izis is a collection of 76 Izis photographs in splendid héliogravure of French circuses, each accompanied by one of Prévert's poems, and further enhanced by four magnificent circus prints and dust jacket design by another of his friends, Marc Chagall. "The sense of Existential isolation [of circus performers from the rest of society] is handled with sensitivity and empathy by Izis, who makes what might be just another hackneyed view of a popularly exotic subject into something profound, moving and extraordinary" (Parr & Badger I:222). Text in French.

Fine condition.

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Aquatint Copperplate process by which the plate is “bitten” by exposure to acid. By changing the areas of the plate that are exposed and the length of time the plate is submerged in the acid bath, the engraver can obtain fine and varying shades of gray that closely resemble watercolor washes. Although the name contains the word “tint”, this is a black-and-white printing process; aquatint plates can often be hand colored, however.
Armorial Used to describe a binding bearing the coat of arms of the original owner, or with bookplates incorporating the owner’s arms.
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