Original Marc Chagall Prints for Sale

One of the key figures of modernism, Chagall's work resists easy categorisation. Over a life spanning almost a century, he explored a wide range of media including painting, ceramics, illustration, stained glass and stage design. His work as a printmaker constitutes a flowering of romantic expression unmatched in the 20th century. During his lifetime he produced over a thousand lithographs and more than five hundred etchings. Each is a perfect distillation of the artist's profound sensitivity to the poetry of daily life. 

Chagall was born in Russia to a deeply religious Jewish family. During his youth he travelled widely, working in St Petersburg, Moscow, Paris, his native town of Vitebsk, and Berlin. Settling in Paris in 1923, he established a reputation as one of the foremost artists in France. He worked closely with the legendary art dealer Ambroise Vollard, creating three important suites of etchings: illustrations for Gogol's "Dead Souls", prints to accompany the fables of Jean de la Fontaine, and a series of scenes from the Bible. In 1941 he fled Vichy France for the safety of New York, only returning to Europe in 1948. 

This homecoming was soon followed by his first major foray into lithography, a suite of illustrations for four stories from "The Thousand and One Nights". Chagall's painterly sensibility found its greatest expression in the lithographic process, which afforded him the ability to work in the jewel-like colours so vital to his storytelling. In the studio of the Atelier Mourlot he struck up a lifelong friendship with the master printer Charles Sorlier. Their fruitful collaboration would continue until Chagall's death in 1985. 

‘With Chagall, nothing is quite as we expect it's going to be,’ wrote Sorlier in 1974. ‘He has the rare ability to start each morning afresh. For him, each day is the first day, each flower the most brilliant, each fruit the sweetest… With every stone, lithography is born again… I have had the rare privilege of seeing Chagall at work, and it cannot be denied that, at times, it seems as if an angel has entered the workshop.’