(Three chickens)

 

Marc Chagall

  1887 - 1985 (biography)

c. 1930  

etching 

11 5/8 x 9 7/16" platemark 

pencil signed in unidentified hand; signed in plate, lower right 

from the second edition of 200, printed on Rives. 

old Roten reg#, title, pencil, lower margin 

Garvey 52; Sorlier 97-198; Cagall Books 22 

heavy buff wove Rives 

published 

begun by Vollard, finished by Teriade 

JEJA124 

$1,200.00 

La Fontaine Fables, Eaux Fortes Originales illustrated by Marc Chagall was commissioned by Vollard to be printed as color engravings to illustrate 100 of the fables by Jean Fontaine. Chagall did 100 preliminary gouaches but the transfer to plates was so difficult and the public was so outraged at having a Russian artist illustrate the work of the French author, the project was abandoned. Chagall then etched them as copper plates to be printed in black and white. The plates were printed by Maurice Potin at L’Imprimerie Nationale de France in Paris between 1927 and 1930. The works were finally published as an album by Tériade in 1952. The edition consisted of a portfolio edition of 100 proofs, printed in black on Montval laid paper and signed by Chagall in pencil on the right margin. The plate number was added in pencil on the left margin. There was also an edition of 200, printed on Rives, that was unsigned, of which there were 85 copies that were hand colored by the artist. References: Garvey 52; Sorlier 97–198; Chagall Books 22