Marc ChagallParis – Place de la Concorde. 1952.

( €22,500  $24,500 )

Original lithograph in colours. 1952. Signed in pencil. Numbered in pencil from the edition of 75. Issued as a part of the series  ‘Vision de Paris – A Vision of Paris’. Drawn and hand-printed at the Atelier Mourlot, Paris.

Reference: Mourlot – Chagall The Lithographs 83.

A beautiful impression with the full tonality of the colours. Excellent condition. On cream Arches paper. Worked and printed to full sheet size (without any white margin as issued). Sheet: 361 x 273mm.

Whilst Chagall was in New York during the period of the 1939-45 War he was introduced to the master lithograph printer Albert Carman. Chagall had made various prints in monochrome black ink before the War but did not know how to use colour inks. As a result of Carman’s teaching he made a superb series of colour lithographs for an ‘Arabian Nights’ album. Most importantly, however, he was intensely inspired by the visual richness of  colour lithography as a medium. It was the start of a life-long passion.

When Chagall returned to Paris – the city he felt was his artistic home – he immediately started on a series of Paris Views in lithography. The colours and the joyous freedom of drawing underline his happiness at his return. The prints of this series ‘Visions de Paris’ have become amongst his most famous and most admired.

The prints in the series ‘Visions de Paris’ were issued in two editions. The first, as here, was 75 impressions individually printed on a hand press and each signed and numbered. A second edition, using the same plates but on a machine press, was not signed or numbered. It was issued by the publisher Tériade for the art periodical Verve.