The Lithographs of Chagall.

(CHAGALL, Marc) Cain.

Item Number: 83644

Boston and Monte Carlo: Boston and Monte Carlo, 1960-1986.

First editions of all six volumes in the catalogue raisonne of Chagall’s lithographs, richly illustrated with 28 original lithographs. Quarto, original cloth, original dust jackets each with original lithograph, original acetates. Introduction by Marc Chagall. Fine in fine dust jackets. Volumes 1-3 have the original cardboard boxes. Scarce complete set of all 6 volumes with all lithographs present.

"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.