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Marc
Chagall: The Early Etchings
An exhibition of sixty-five (65) etchings
An
exhibition of 65 early etchings by Marc Chagall produced
in Paris for the art dealer Ambrose Vollard. The first commission
from Vollard came in 1923. Chagall was asked to illustrate
one of a series of etchings selected from a list provided
to the artist; but it was Chagall's suggestion that he illustrate
the work of the Russian novelist Nikolai Gogol entitled
Les Ames Morts (The Dead Souls). [The novel was published
in the nineteenth century under the heading The Adventures
of Chichikov, to soften the title as a statement against
serfdomism.] It was Chagall's desire to illustrate images
that depicted what he knew best--Russian village life.
"Come
back, you're famous, Vollard is
waiting for you."
---Blaise Cendrars
[letter to Chagall in Berlin ca. 1922]
Les
Ames Morts (The Dead Souls) was Nikolai Gogol's masterpiece,
and considered a classic tale of Russian literature. The
series of plates were completed by Chagall in 1927 and delivered
to Vollard who stored them in his cellar for the next twenty
years, only to be published by Avec Tériade (Efstratios
Eleftheriades) in 1948. Before the death of the nineteenth
century French art dealer, Vollard gave Chagall a second
commission in 1927, this time to illustrate Jean de La Fontaine's
Fables. The commission caused some controversy among the
French since Chagall (born Moshe Segal in Vitebsk, Russia)
was not a Frenchman. The dealer defended his position by
pointing out that the Fables were not uniquely French, in
fact, they originated from antiquity in the writings of
the Greeks and later among Latin poets before La Fontaine
translated the verses into "children's stories."
