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CHAGALLL, Marc (1887-1985)
Mein Leben (Kornfeld 1-20)
the complete set of twenty etchings and drypoints, 1922, on Japan paper, with title, justification and table of contents, all signed in pencil, numbered 10/110, from the edition of 26 on this paper (there were also 84 on wove paper), published by Paul Cassirer, Berlin, 1923, the full sheets, with deckle edges, in very good condition, within the original paper mounts and the original vellum-covered cardboard box with gilt design on front, all in very good condition
Overall: 18 5/8 x 14 5/8 in. (473 x 373 mm.)
Literature:
Eberhard W. Kornfeld, Verzeichnis der Kupferstiche, Radierungen und Holzschnitte von Marc Chagall - Band I: Werke 1922-1966, Bern, 1970, no. 1-20.
Patrick Cramer, Marc Chagall -- The Illustrated Books: Catalogue raisonné, Geneva, 1995, no. 2.
Sylvie Forestier, Laurence Sigalas, Marc Chagall -- L'oeuvre grave, Muse National Message Biblique Marc Chagall (exh. cat.), Nice 1987.
"Il me semble que quelque chose m'aurait manqué si, à part la couleur, je ne m'étais pas occupé aussi, à un moment de ma vie, des gravures et des lithographies [] En tenant une pierre lithographique our une plaque de cuivre je croyais toucher un talisman. En elles il me semblait que je pouvais placer toutes mes tristesses, toutes mes joies" (Chagall, quoted in: Forestier, Sigalas, p. 9)
Chagall discovered printmaking, a practice which from then on would play an important role in his work, relatively late, in 1922, when the artist was 35 years of age and already an established painter. It was the Berlin publisher Paul Cassirer who encouraged him to create a series of etchings to illustrate the autobiographical notes he had brought from Russia. Cassirer put Chagall in contact with the etcher and printer Hermann Struck, who instructed the artist in the technique. While Chagall's biographical text in Russian proved difficult to translate and was only published years later, in Paris in 1931, Cassirer did not abandon project altogether, but issued the prints in an album of twenty plates without text, titled Mein Leben, in 1923.
Based on Chagall's memories of growing up in a shtetl at the edges of the Russian Empire, these first small etchings and drypoints are an enchanting combination of a child's perceptions and fantasies with the mysteries of Eastern European Jewish folk culture. With their lightness of touch and humor, their bucolic charm and surrealist -- or perhaps rather 'magical realist' - imagery, they remain amongst Chagall's most original and moving graphic works.
Although published in an edition of 110 copies, complete sets of Mein Leben are now extremely rare. To our knowledge only one other example has been offered at auction within the last 25 years.
Mein Leben (Kornfeld 1-20)
the complete set of twenty etchings and drypoints, 1922, on Japan paper, with title, justification and table of contents, all signed in pencil, numbered 10/110, from the edition of 26 on this paper (there were also 84 on wove paper), published by Paul Cassirer, Berlin, 1923, the full sheets, with deckle edges, in very good condition, within the original paper mounts and the original vellum-covered cardboard box with gilt design on front, all in very good condition
Overall: 18 5/8 x 14 5/8 in. (473 x 373 mm.)
Literature:
Eberhard W. Kornfeld, Verzeichnis der Kupferstiche, Radierungen und Holzschnitte von Marc Chagall - Band I: Werke 1922-1966, Bern, 1970, no. 1-20.
Patrick Cramer, Marc Chagall -- The Illustrated Books: Catalogue raisonné, Geneva, 1995, no. 2.
Sylvie Forestier, Laurence Sigalas, Marc Chagall -- L'oeuvre grave, Muse National Message Biblique Marc Chagall (exh. cat.), Nice 1987.
"Il me semble que quelque chose m'aurait manqué si, à part la couleur, je ne m'étais pas occupé aussi, à un moment de ma vie, des gravures et des lithographies [] En tenant une pierre lithographique our une plaque de cuivre je croyais toucher un talisman. En elles il me semblait que je pouvais placer toutes mes tristesses, toutes mes joies" (Chagall, quoted in: Forestier, Sigalas, p. 9)
Chagall discovered printmaking, a practice which from then on would play an important role in his work, relatively late, in 1922, when the artist was 35 years of age and already an established painter. It was the Berlin publisher Paul Cassirer who encouraged him to create a series of etchings to illustrate the autobiographical notes he had brought from Russia. Cassirer put Chagall in contact with the etcher and printer Hermann Struck, who instructed the artist in the technique. While Chagall's biographical text in Russian proved difficult to translate and was only published years later, in Paris in 1931, Cassirer did not abandon project altogether, but issued the prints in an album of twenty plates without text, titled Mein Leben, in 1923.
Based on Chagall's memories of growing up in a shtetl at the edges of the Russian Empire, these first small etchings and drypoints are an enchanting combination of a child's perceptions and fantasies with the mysteries of Eastern European Jewish folk culture. With their lightness of touch and humor, their bucolic charm and surrealist -- or perhaps rather 'magical realist' - imagery, they remain amongst Chagall's most original and moving graphic works.
Although published in an edition of 110 copies, complete sets of Mein Leben are now extremely rare. To our knowledge only one other example has been offered at auction within the last 25 years.