1887-1985
Marc Chagall began using printmaking techniques when he was 35 years old. He produced a lot of lithographs, etchings, and woodcuts while residing in Berlin, Germany, during the time. The art dealer Vollard hired Chagall in 1923 to illustrate the Bible, La Fontaine’s Fables, and The Dead Souls by Gogol.
One of eight children born to a Russian-Jewish family in Vitebsk, Belarus, was Marc Chagall. Although Chagall was exposed to Cubism and Fauvism as a child, he soon created his own poetic style. In addition to his paintings and stained-glass windows, he also produced a vast array of prints. Because colour was so important to the artist’s work, lithography became his preferred method.
Chagall fled to the United States in exile from France that was under Nazi occupation in 1941. Chagall’s prints and paintings were featured in a significant retrospective exhibition hosted by the New York Museum of Modern Art in 1946. The exhibition was extremely well received and was afterwards presented in Chicago.
Chagall returned to France in 1947 and started a brand-new phase of his printmaking endeavours. At the age of 63, Chagall worked with the Parisian publisher Mourlot and essentially learnt how to make lithographs from scratch, almost like an apprentice. Charles Sorlier, a master printer with outstanding skill, served as this talented “apprentice’s” mentor. Chagall frequently worked in Mourlot’s printing workshop under Sorlier’s supervision.
The artist produced over a thousand prints throughout the course of his career, mostly lithographs and etchings.
