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ItemID: #107030
Cost: $13,000.00

Lithographs of Marc Chagall

Marc Chagall

BOLDLY INSCRIBED BY CHAGALL ACROSS AN ENTIRE LEAF: SCARCE SIX-VOLUME LITHOGRAPHS OF CHAGALL, WITH 28 ORIGINAL PRINTS

(CHAGALL, Marc) CAIN, Julien and SORLIER, Charles. The Lithographs of Chagall. Monte Carlo, New York, Boston: André Sauret; George Braziller; Boston Book and Art Shop, 1960-86. Six volumes. Folio (10 by 13 inches), original beige cloth, original dust jackets each with original lithograph, original acetates. $13,000.

Mixed first French, German and English editions of all six volumes in the catalogue raisonné of Chagall’s lithographs, richly illustrated with 28 original lithographs (including the dust jackets). Volume I inscribed, “To Shirlyy [sic] and Jack Mandel, Marc Chagall, N.Y. 1963.”

"Chagall's emblematic irrationality shook off all outside influences: color governed his compositions, calling up chimerical processions of memory where reality and the imaginary are woven into a single legend, born in Vitebsk and dreamed in Paris" (Dictionary of Modern Art). His art was aptly described by his biographer as "a troubling alloy of naturalism and magic fiction" (Sidney Alexander). For Chagall, the medium of lithography did not come easily. Printer Fernand Mourlot ran a lithography press where such greats as Braque, Matisse, Picasso, Miró and Chagall came to have their designs printed and to learn about this still nascent print-making process. "For many long months Chagall came and worked tirelessly, and his dissatisfaction allowed him to have only a few of his first attempts printed" (Sorlier, 45). Volumes I and II contain 24 of the original 28 lithographs published throughout the series; the dust jackets and frontispieces of Volumes III and IV account for the remaining four. (Volume V was published near the end of Chagall's life, and Volume VI was published posthumously.) All were issued separately over a period of 26 years and are very scarce as a complete set. All volumes published simultaneously in English, French and German. This set is comprised of Volumes I and III in English, Volumes II and IV in French, and Volumes V and VI in German. Volumes I and II were also issued in a deluxe signed limited edition of only 100 and 150 copies. Cramer, 43, 56, 77, 94. Gauss 391. Freitag 1914. Sorlier, 229. The recipients of this copy, Shirley and Jack Mandel, were instrumental in operating Camp NYDA, the summer camp for diabetic children conducted by the New York Diabetes Association.

A fine inscribed set.

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