Marc Chagall ─ Nicolas Gogol
Les Âmes mortes. 1948. 118 original etchings. One of the 50 first copies with a suite on Japan nacré.
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April 9, 01:12 PM GMT
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15,000 - 20,000 EUR
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Description
Marc Chagall ─ Nicolas Gogol
Les Âmes mortes
Paris, Tériade, 1948.
3 folio volumes (375 or 385 x 293 mm), including one for the suite (390 x 285 mm). In leaves, folded over wrappers, cardboard dust jacket, titled labels on the spine, in a slipcase.
One of the first copies, with suite.
118 original Marc Chagall etchings (96 inserts and 11 headpieces).
One of the 50 first copies with a suite on Japan nacré, from a publication of 368 copies on Arches vellum (n°26). Signed by the artist in the limitation notice.
The suite on Japan nacré includes 96 etchings inserts.
A very fine copy of Chagall’s first major illustrated book, very influenced by the Russian Revolution.
Cramer, Livres illustrés, n° 17.
Ch. Sorlier, Marc Chagall et Ambroise Vollard, Galerie Matignon, 1981.
Fr. Chapon, Le Peintre et le Livre, 1987.
The first illustrated book that Chagall produced for Ambroise Vollard between 1923 and 1927 was interrupted by the gallerist’s death and taken up again by Tériade and the painter’s daughter in 1947. To the initial plates printed in 1927 for Vollard, Tériade added 11 ornamental letter-engraved headbands. This explains why this book, published in 1948, is still very much influenced by the painter’s Vitebsk period. Considered one of the greatest colorists, Chagall reveals himself to be a wonderful draftsman in these black copper engravings.
"the dry-point, contrasting pure lines with areas of sifting, stripes, dense black, restores the complexity of Gogol’s world, this flurry that is sometimes pierced by a poignant recourse to the Russian soil." (Fr. Chapon, p. 224).
The last plate (table of plates) represents the portraits of Gogol and Vollard, as well as a self-portrait of the painter.
