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Period: Mid-20th Century
Millbrook Steeplechase 1930 by Paul Brown for The Derrydale Press
Located in Bristol, CT
Paul Desmond Brown (1893-1958) Millbrook Steeplechase proof-plate from The Derrydale Press book Gentlemen Up pub. 1930
Print Sz: 14 5/8"H x 8 1/4"W
F...
Category
Mid-20th Century Animal Prints
Materials
Paper
Rosemary Ellis Surreal Snail Linocut Modern British Art Wildlife Mid Century
Located in London, GB
From a series of paintings by Clifford and Rosemary Ellis. To see them or our other Modern British Art, scroll down to "More from this Seller" and below it click on "See all from thi...
Category
Realist Mid-20th Century Animal Prints
Materials
Linocut
Paul Jouve - Chimpanzee - Original Engraving
By Paul Jouve
Located in Collonge Bellerive, Geneve, CH
Paul Jouve - Chimpanzee - Original Engraving
Editions Rombaldi, Paris, 1950.
Copy on velin creme de Rives
Artwork by Paul Jouve.
Original copper engraving ...
Category
Modern Mid-20th Century Animal Prints
Materials
Engraving
Lithograph after Georges Braque
Located in Collonge Bellerive, Geneve, CH
Lithograph after Georges Braque
From the deluxe art review, Derrière le Mirroir
1964
Printed signature
Dimensions: 38 x 28 cm
DLM No. 148, 1964
Edition: Foundation Maeght at Saint P...
Category
Modern Mid-20th Century Animal Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Antoni Clavé - Original Lithograph - For Pushkin's Queen of Spades
By Antoni Clavé
Located in Collonge Bellerive, Geneve, CH
Antoni Clavé - Original Lithograph - For Alexander Pushkin's Queen of Spades
Dimensions: 325 x 247 mm.
1946
Original lithograph of Antoni Clavé
Edition: 300
The Queen of Spades. Tr...
Category
Modern Mid-20th Century Animal Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Le Goût de Bonheur: one plate
Located in Collonge Bellerive, Geneve, CH
Artist: Pablo Picasso (after)
Medium: lithograph, Arches paper
Portfolio: Le Goût de Bonheur
Year: 1970
Edition: Total of 1998 copies (666 each in G...
Category
Modern Mid-20th Century Animal Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Jean Cocteau - Europe's Agriculture - Original Lithograph
By Jean Cocteau
Located in Collonge Bellerive, Geneve, CH
Original Lithograph by Jean Cocteau
Title: Europe's Agriculture
Signed in the stone/printed signature
Dimensions: 33 x 46 cm
Luxury impression from the portfolio published by Sciaky....
Category
Cubist Mid-20th Century Animal Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Jean Lurçat (after) - Homage to Dufy - Lithograph
By Jean Lurçat
Located in Collonge Bellerive, Geneve, CH
(after) Jean Lurçat
Lithograph after a watercolor, published in the book "Lettre à mon peintre Raoul Dufy." Paris, Librairie Académique Perrin, 1965.
Printed signature
Dimensions: ...
Category
Fauvist Mid-20th Century Animal Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Georges Braque - Original Lithograph
Located in Collonge Bellerive, Geneve, CH
Georges Braque - Original Lithograph
1963
Dimensions: 32 x 24 cm
Andre Sauret, Monte Carlo
The father of Cubism
Three Cubist that distinguishes art historian periods were initiated and developed by Georges Braque: The Cubist Cézanne (1907-1909), Executive (1909-1912) and synthetic (1912-1922).
Post-Impressionist and fawn, Braque no longer adheres to the contingency of a decorative way or the other. Cézanne’s paintings exhibited at the Grand Palais during the retrospective of 1907 are a revelation: Cézanne sought and invented a pictorial language. In his footsteps, Braque went to the South with the reasons of the Master. He returned with Estaque landscapes and surprising Ciotat it keeps Cezanne geometric model and retains the “passages” continuity from one surface to another to create the sensation of “turning around” of the object represented. But he wants to go after the consequences of the vision of Cezanne. In his paintings Houses in L’Estaque (1908) it simplifies the volumes of houses, neglects detail by removing doors and windows: the plastic rhythm that builds the table. Large Nude , a masterpiece of the period, can be considered the first work of Cézanne cubism .
Systematizing and deepening Braque discoveries open the door analytical cubism. In 1909, his painting became more cerebral than sensual. The pattern is recreated in the two-dimensionality of the canvas, leaving aside any illusionistic perspective. In Still Life with Violin, objects are analyzed facets according to their characteristic elements, each facet referring to a particular view of the object. There are so many facets of points selected view: Table reflects the knowledge of the object and the ubiquity of the eye. Moreover, Braque is looking for the essence of the objects in the world rather than their contingency, which explains the absence of light source and use of muted colors (gray, ocher), contingent aspects of the object . But formal logic has stepped facets, erased any anecdote to the object and ultimately led to his painting a hermetic more marked on the edge of abstraction (see the series of Castle Roche-Guyon ).
Braque, anxious to keep the concrete and refusing at all costs that the logic of Cubism takes the paintings to abstract, reintroduced signs of reality in his paintings in 1912 marks the beginning of Synthetic Cubism. Historians speak of “signs of real” rather than reality because what interests Braque, this is not to put reality into a table, but to create a painting which, by its language, refers to the real. To do this, he invented two major techniques XX th century inclusions and contributions. The inclusions consist of painting objects that have no real depth, materials (wallpaper in Nature morte aux playing cards faux wood is a pictorial inclusion) or letters (calligraphic inclusion in Portuguese ), made first brush and a few months later stencil. Contributions are defined in contrast with the collage on canvas of foreign materials: glued or sand paper, sawdust, etc.. Regarding the collages, Braque used for the first time in September 1912 a piece of adhesive paper imitating faux wood Compote and Glass , then the packet envelope of tobacco Bock in 1912-1913, or an advertisement in Damier , 1913). Inputs and inclusions refer to an external object in the table, without “emulate” this object. Away from their appearances, objects are represented in closest essence of the objects in the real world sense.
This is also the time of Synthetic Cubism that Braque invented paper sculpture. There are, unfortunately, and no one is living proof of a photograph makes it possible to realize: Paper and paperboard.
Métamorphoses period(1961-1963).
In 1961, Georges Braque worked on a Greek head for the Louvre, which obsesses him, and he wishes to free his mind. He tried several times to bring out the paint and the result was unsatisfactory. He thinks the ultimate metamorphosis its Greek head projected in three dimensions. He calls in his studio of Baron Heger Loewenfeld, master lapidary, and he communicates his enthusiasm during the “fateful encounter.” Nine months later, in honor of the eighty years of Georges Braque, Heger Loewenfeld offers the Master of the ring Circe: the famous Greek head finally exorcised, carved in an onyx. Braque Loewenfeld then asked to identify other issues that haunt him.
From dated and signed by Georges Braque, Heger gouaches Loewenfeld shapes works in the fields of jewelery, lapidary art...
Category
Modern Mid-20th Century Animal Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Giuseppe Capogrossi - Original Lithograph
Located in Collonge Bellerive, Geneve, CH
Giuseppe Capogrossi - Original Lithograph
Colorful Abstraction
1969
From the art revue XXe Siecle
Dimensions: 19 x 12.25 inches
Edition: G. di San ...
Category
Modern Mid-20th Century Animal Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Le Goût de Bonheur: one plate (Croquis)
Located in Collonge Bellerive, Geneve, CH
Artist: Pablo Picasso (after)
Medium: lithograph, Arches paper
Portfolio: Le Goût de Bonheur
Year: 1970
Edition: Total of 1998 copies (666 each in G...
Category
Modern Mid-20th Century Animal Prints
Materials
Lithograph
André Marchand (after) - Homage to Dufy - Lithograph
Located in Collonge Bellerive, Geneve, CH
(after) André Marchand
Lithograph after a watercolor, published in the book "Lettre à mon peintre Raoul Dufy." Paris, Librairie Académique P...
Category
Fauvist Mid-20th Century Animal Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Michael Canney Rhinoceros Etching 1947 After Dürer's Rhinoceros 1515
Located in Eversholt, Bedfordshire
MICHAEL CANNEY (1923-1999) RHINOCEROS
Etching with aquatint and plate tone
1947, signed and dated
Sheet Height 14.5 cm Length 21cm.
In a cream mount ...
Category
Mid-20th Century Animal Prints
Materials
Etching
Parrot from the American Dream Portfolio, Pop Art Screenprint by Robert Indiana
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Robert Indiana, American (1928 - 2018)
Title: Parrot from the American Dream Portfolio
Year: 1967 (1997)
Medium: Screenprint (unsigned)
Edition Size: 395
Image Size: 16.5 x 1...
Category
Pop Art Mid-20th Century Animal Prints
Materials
Screen
The Calf by Orovida Pissarro - Watercolour and etching
Located in London, GB
*UK BUYERS WILL PAY AN ADDITIONAL 20% VAT ON TOP OF THE ABOVE PRICE
The Calf by Orovida Pissarro (1893-1968)
Watercolour, hand-coloured over an etching
17.5 x 23.2 cm (6 ⅞ x 9 ⅛ inc...
Category
Post-Impressionist Mid-20th Century Animal Prints
Materials
Watercolor, Etching
Marc Chagall Still Life with Fruits 1957 Original Lithograph Mourlot 205
By Marc Chagall
Located in Eversholt, Bedfordshire
Surrealist composition with a dog, figure, cockerel floating above the still life
In a cream mount, visible sheet length 19.50cm, height 22.50cm
Within a black and silvered moulded ...
Category
Modern Mid-20th Century Animal Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Death of Faithful - Horses from Pilgrim’s Progress
Located in London, GB
Striking first proof of Péri’s “Death of Faithful”, from his Pilgrim’s Progress etchings. Inscribed “first proof”.
Artist: Peter László Péri
Date: 1...
Category
Modern Mid-20th Century Animal Prints
Materials
Paper, Etching
LA TAILLE DOUCE
Located in Aventura, FL
Lithograph in colors on paper. Hand signed and numbered in pencil. From the edition of 100.
Artwork is in excellent condition. Certificate of Authenticity included. All reasonabl...
Category
Abstract Expressionist Mid-20th Century Animal Prints
Materials
Paper, Lithograph
$1,912 Sale Price
25% Off
Rooster
Located in Toronto, Ontario
Charles Pachter is one of the most collected and cherished Canadian artists.
His iconic, uplifting and patriotic images have independently earned their place in the nation's museum...
Category
Pop Art Mid-20th Century Animal Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Rupert Rides by Orovida Pissarro - Animal etching
Located in London, GB
*UK BUYERS WILL PAY AN ADDITIONAL 20% VAT ON TOP OF THE ABOVE PRICE
Rupert Rides by Orovida Pissarro (1893-1968)
Etching
31 x 23.5 cm (12 ¼ x 9 ¼ inches)
Signed and dated lower righ...
Category
Post-Impressionist Mid-20th Century Animal Prints
Materials
Etching
Oiseau dans son nid (Bird in its Nest) from Août (August)
Located in Palo Alto, CA
Braque Oiseau dans son nid (Bird in its Nest) from Août (August), 1958 is an exquisite work that revisits Braque’s beloved bird motif. Beautifully inspir...
Category
Modern Mid-20th Century Animal Prints
Materials
Aquatint, Etching
$7,500 Sale Price
28% Off
Deer Les cerfs - Chinese Abstract Animals Deers
By Zao Wou-Ki
Located in London, GB
This lithograph in colours is hand signed in pencil by the artist "Zao Wou-Ki" in Chinese and Pinyin at the lower left margin.
It is also hand numbered in pencil from the edition of ...
Category
Abstract Mid-20th Century Animal Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Pig Sticking by Orovida Pissarro, 1931 - Etching Print
Located in London, GB
SOLD UNFRAMED
Pig Sticking by Orovida Pissarro (1893 - 1968)
Etching
17.3 x 27.4 cm (6 ¾ x 10 ¾ inches)
Signed and dated lower right Orovida 1931 Numbered lower left 26/50 and titl...
Category
Mid-20th Century Animal Prints
Materials
Etching
THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY
Located in Portland, ME
Muench, John (American, 1914-1993). THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY. Color Lithograph, not dated. Edition of 25. Signed, titles and numbered, all in pencil...
Category
Mid-20th Century Animal Prints
Materials
Lithograph
The Water Jump In The Grand National Of 1931 At Aintree By Paul Brown
Located in Bristol, CT
Art Sz: 16 1/4"H x 23 1/2"W
Frame Sz: 17 3/4"H x 25"W
A color plate made especially for Polo Magazine, Inc.
The Water Jump In The Grand National Of 1931 At Aintree: The Riderless ...
Category
Mid-20th Century Animal Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Charles Pachter "Good Night to the Rooster"
Located in Toronto, Ontario
Charles Pachter is one of the most collected and cherished Canadian artists.
His iconic, uplifting and patriotic images have independently earned their place in museums across the ...
Category
Abstract Mid-20th Century Animal Prints
Materials
Giclée
Alfred Manessier - Original Lithograph
Located in Collonge Bellerive, Geneve, CH
Alfred Manessier - Original Lithograph
Colorful Abstraction
1962
From XXe Siecle
Dimensions: 32 x 24
Edition: G. di San Lazzaro.
Unsigned and unumbered as issued
Category
Modern Mid-20th Century Animal Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Alfred Manessier - Lithograph
Located in Collonge Bellerive, Geneve, CH
Alfred Manessier - Lithograph
1962
From the art periodical XXe Siecle (no. 20)
Dimensions: 32 x 24
Edition: G. di San Lazzaro.
Unsigned and unnumbered as issued
Category
Modern Mid-20th Century Animal Prints
Materials
Lithograph
(after) Max Ernst - Blue Bird - Stencil
Located in Collonge Bellerive, Geneve, CH
Max Ernst (after) - Blue Bird - Stencil
Published in the deluxe art review, XXe Siecle, 1958
Dimensions: 32 x 25 cm
Publisher: G. di San Lazzaro.
Max Ernst was born in Bruhl, a place near Cologne, in Germany. He was raised in a strict Catholic family, and both of his parents were disciplinarians who were dedicated to training their children into God-fearing and talented individuals. Although his father was deaf, Ernst learned so much from him, particularly when it comes to painting. In fact, much of his early years were lived under the inspiration of his father who was also a teacher. He was the one who introduced painting to Ernst at an early age.
In 1914, Ernst attended the University of Bonn where he studied philosophy. However, he eventually dropped out of school because he was more interested in the arts. He claimed that his primary sources of interest included anything that had something to do with painting. Moreover, he became fascinated with psychology, among other subjects in school.
Primarily, Ernst's love for painting was the main reason why he became deeply interested with this craft and decided to pursue it later on in his life. During his early years, he became familiar with the works of some of the greatest artists of all time including Claude Monet, Paul Cezanne and Vincent van Gogh. He was also drawn to themes such as fantasy and dream imagery, which were among the common subjects of the works of Giorgio de Chirico.
During World War I, Ernst was forced to join the German Army, and he became a part of the artillery division that exposed him greatly to the drama of warfare. A soldier in the War, Ernst emerged deeply traumatized and highly critical of western culture. These charged sentiments directly fed into his vision of the modern world as irrational, an idea that became the basis of his artwork. Ernst's artistic vision, along with his humor and verve come through strongly in his Dada and Surrealists works; Ernst was a pioneer of both movements.
It was Ernst's memories of the war and his childhood that helps him create absurd, yet interesting scenes in his artworks. Soon, he took his passion for the arts seriously when he returned to Germany after the war. With Jean Arp, a poet and artist, Ernst formed a group for artists in Cologne. He also developed a close relationship with fellow artists in Paris who propagated Avant-Garde artworks.
In 1919, Ernst started creating some of his first collages, where he made use of various materials including illustrated catalogs and some manuals that produced a somewhat futuristic image. His unique masterpieces allowed Ernst to create his very own world of dreams and fantasy, which eventually helped heal his personal issues and trauma. In addition to painting and creating collages, Ernst also edited some journals. He also made a few sculptures that were rather queer in appearance.
In 1920s, influenced by the writings of psychologist Sigmund Freud, the literary, intellectual, and artistic movement called Surrealism sought a revolution against the constraints of the rational mind; and by extension, they saw the rules of a society as oppressive. Surrealism also embraces a Marxist ideology that demands an orthodox approach to history as a product of the material interaction of collective interests, and many renown Surrealism artists later on became 20th century Counterculture symbols such as Marxist Che Guevara. In 1922 Ernst moved to Paris, where the surrealists were gathering around Andre Breton. In 1923 Ernst finished Men Shall Know Nothing of This, known as the first Surrealist painting. Ernst was one of the first artists who apply The Interpretation of Dreams by Freud to investigate his deep psyche in order to explore the source of his own creativity. While turning inwards unto himself, Ernst was also tapping into the universal unconscious with its common dream imagery.
Despite his strange styles, Ernst gained quite a reputation that earned him some followers throughout his life. He even helped shape the trend of American art during the mid-century, thanks to his brilliant and extraordinary ideas that were unlike those of other artists during his time. Ernst also became friends with Peggy Guggenheim, which inspired him to develop close ties with the abstract expressionists.
When Ernst lived in Sedona, he became deeply fascinated with the Southwest Native American navajo art. In fact, the technique used in this artwork inspired him and paved the way for him to create paintings that depicted this style. Thus, Ernst became a main figure of this art technique, including the rituals and spiritual traditions included in this form of art. Pollock, aside from the other younger generations of abstract expressionists, was also inspired by sand painting of the Southwest...
Category
Surrealist Mid-20th Century Animal Prints
Materials
Stencil
Autoportrait - Lithograph
Located in Collonge Bellerive, Geneve, CH
(after) Raoul Dufy
Lithograph after a watercolor, published in the book "Lettre à mon peintre Raoul Dufy." Paris, Librairie Académique Perrin, 1965.
Printed signature
Di...
Category
Fauvist Mid-20th Century Animal Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Oiseau Bistre
Located in Castle Cary, GB
Provenance: “John Richardson: A Scholar Collects” was a sale held at Sothebys in December 2020. A unique collection of more than 50 paintings, works on paper, sculptures, and prints ...
Category
Abstract Mid-20th Century Animal Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Price Upon Request
Char noir (Char V) - Etching, Greek, Mythology, Acient, Horse, Chariot
Located in Köln, DE
Etching and aquatint in colour "Char noir (Char V)" (Black Chariot, Chariot V) by Georges Braque from 1958.
The edition on BFK RIVES comprises approx. 75 copies.
The present copy...
Category
Modern Mid-20th Century Animal Prints
Materials
Etching, Color, Aquatint
Poissons volants bleus - Modern, Woodcut, Abstract, Animal, Blue
Located in Köln, DE
"Poissons volants bleus" (Blue flying fish) by Georges Braque from Guillaume Apollinaire's “Si je mourais là-bas” (If I die there). The portfolio was published on the occasion of Geo...
Category
Modern Mid-20th Century Animal Prints
Materials
Woodcut
Oiseau de nuit noir - Modern, Woodcut, Bird, Night
Located in Köln, DE
"Oiseau de nuit noir" (Bird of the black night) by Georges Braque from Guillaume Apollinaire's “Si je mourais là-bas” (If I die there). The portfolio was published on the occasion of...
Category
Modern Mid-20th Century Animal Prints
Materials
Woodcut
Price Upon Request
Migration - Modern, Colour Aquatint, Birds
Located in Köln, DE
Fascinated by an experience in the Camargue bird sanctuary in 1955, the bird became a symbol of freedom and harmony for Georges Braque. ‘I now only draw birds, after my still lifes h...
Category
Modern Mid-20th Century Animal Prints
Materials
Etching, Aquatint
Price Upon Request
La bibliothèque est en feu (René Char) - Modern, Colour Aquatint, Birds, Blue
Located in Köln, DE
Fascinated by an experience in the Camargue bird sanctuary in 1955, the bird became a symbol of freedom and harmony for Georges Braque. ‘I now only draw birds, after my still lifes h...
Category
Modern Mid-20th Century Animal Prints
Materials
Aquatint, Etching
Woman, Clown and Monkey
Located in New York, NY
Pablo Picasso’s Woman, Clown, and Monkey, a lithograph published by Verve in 1954, exemplifies the artist’s ability to distill complex emotions and narratives into strikingly simple ...
Category
Modern Mid-20th Century Animal Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Price Upon Request
"Les trois oiseaux en vol"
Located in Köln, DE
One of the main motifs in Georges Braques late printmaking oeuvre is the bird. By depicting the bird as itself or the flight of birds, Braque found what he called the "still life of ...
Category
Modern Mid-20th Century Animal Prints
Materials
Aquatint
Price Upon Request
no title / "Oiseau bleu"
Located in Köln, DE
One of the main motifs in Georges Braques late printmaking oeuvre is the bird. By depicting the bird as itself or the flight of birds, Braque found what he called the "still life of ...
Category
Modern Mid-20th Century Animal Prints
Materials
Aquatint
Price Upon Request
"Insect, Simulating Seeds" Important color lithograph.
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "Insect, Simulating Seeds" from the suite "Bestiary and some Correspondences" 1968 is an original lithograph on Arches paper by renown British artist Graham Vivia...
Category
Surrealist Mid-20th Century Animal Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Le Christ a l'Horloge, Paris
By Marc Chagall
Located in Missouri, MO
Marc Chagall
"Le Christ a l'Horloge, Paris" (Christ in the Clock) 1957 (M. 196)
Color Lithograph on Arches Wove Paper
Signed in Pencil "Marc Chagall" Lower Right
Initialed "H.C." (Hors Commerce) Lower Left, aside from numbered edition of 90
*Floated in Gold Frame with Linen Matting, UV Plexiglass
Sheet Size: 18 3/4 x 14 3/4 inches (47.5 cm x 38 cm)
Image Size: 9 3/4 x 8 1/2 inches
Framed Size: 28.5 x 24.25 inches
Marc Chagall was a man of keen intelligence, a shrewd observer of the contemporary scene, with a great sympathy for human suffering. He was born on July 7, 1887 in Vitebsk, Russia; his original name was Moishe Shagal (Segal), but when he became a foremost member of the Ecole de Paris, he adopted French citizenship and the French spelling of his name. Vitebsk was a good-sized Russian town of over 60,000, not a shtetl. His father supported a wife and eight children as a worker in a herring-pickling plant.
Sheltered by the Jewish commandment against graven images, the young Chagall never saw so much as a drawing until, one day, he watched a schoolmate copying a magazine illustration. He was ridiculed for his astonishment, but he began copying and improvising from magazines. Both Chagall's parents reluctantly agreed to let him study with Yehuda Pen, a Jewish artist in Vitebsk. Later, in 1906, they allowed their son to study in St. Petersburg, where he was exposed to Russian Iconography and folk art. At that time, Jews could leave the Pale only for business and employment and were required to carry a permit. Chagall, who was in St. Petersburg without a permit, was imprisoned briefly.
His first wife, Bella Rosenfeld, was a product of a rich cultivated and intellectual group of Jews in Vitebsk. Chagall was made commissar for the arts for the area, charged with directing its cultural life and establishing an art school. Russian folklore, peasant life and landscapes persisted in his work all his life. In 1910 a rich patron, a lawyer named Vinaver, staked him to a crucial trip to Paris, where young artists were revolutionizing art. He also sent him a handsome allowance of 125 francs (in those days about $24) each month. Chagall rejected cubism, fauvism and futurism, but remained in Paris. He found a studio near Montparnasse in a famous twelve-sided wooden structure divided into wedge-shaped rooms. Chaim Soutine, a fellow Russian Jew, and Modigliani lived on the same floor. To Chagall's astonishment, he found himself heralded as one of the fathers of surrealism. In 1923, a delegation of Max Ernst, Paul Eluard and Gala (later Salvador Dali's wife) actually knelt before Chagall, begging him to join their ranks. He refused.
To understand Chagall's work, it is necessary to know that he was born a Hasidic Jew, heir to mysticism and a world of the spirit, steeped in Jewish lore and reared in the Yiddish language. The Hasidim had a special feeling for animals, which they tried not to overburden. In the mysterious world of Kabbala and fantastic ancient legends of Chagall's youth, the imaginary was as important as the real. His extraordinary use of color also grew out of his dream world; he did not use color realistically, but for emotional effect and to serve the needs of his design. Most of his favorite themes, though superficially light and trivial, mask dark and somber thoughts. The circus he views as a mirror of life; the crucifixion as a tragic theme, used as a parallel to the historic Jewish condition, but he is perhaps best known for the rapturous lovers he painted all his life. His love of music is a theme that runs through his paintings.
After a brief period in Berlin, Chagall, Bella and their young daughter, Ida, moved to Paris and in 1937 they assumed French citizenship. When France fell, Chagall accepted an invitation from the Museum of Modern Art to immigrate to the United States. He was arrested and imprisoned in Marseilles for a short time, but was still able to immigrate with his family. The Nazi onslaught caught Chagall in Vichy, France, preoccupied with his work. He was loath to leave; his friend Varian Fry rescued him from a police roundup of Jews in Marseille, and packed him, his family and 3500 lbs. of his art works on board a transatlantic ship. The day before he arrived in New York City, June 23, 1941, the Nazis attacked Russia. The United States provided a wartime haven and a climate of liberty for Chagall. In America he spent the war years designing large backdrops for the Ballet.
Bella died suddenly in the United States of a viral infection in September 1944 while summering in upstate New York. He rushed her to a hospital in the Adirondacks, where, hampered by his fragmentary English, they were turned away with the excuse that the hour was too late. The next day she died.
He waited for three years after the war before returning to France. With him went a slender married English girl, Virginia Haggard MacNeil; Chagall fell in love with her and they had a son, David. After seven years she ran off with an indigent photographer. It was an immense blow to Chagall's ego, but soon after, he met Valentine Brodsky, a Russian divorcee designing millinery in London (he called her Fava). She cared for him during the days of his immense fame and glory. They returned to France, to a home and studio in rustic Vence. Chagall loved the country and every day walked through the orchards, terraces, etc. before he went to work.
Chagall died on March 28, 1985 in the south of France. His heirs negotiated an arrangement with the French state allowing them to pay most of their inheritance taxes in works of art. The heirs owed about $30 million to the French government; roughly $23 million of that amount was deemed payable in artworks. Chagall's daughter, Ida and his widow approved the arrangement.
Written and submitted by Jean Ershler Schatz, artist and researcher from Laguna Woods, California.
Sources:
Hannah Grad Goodman in Homage to Chagall in Hadassah Magazine, June 1985
Jack Kroll in Newsweek, April 8, 1985
Andrea Jolles in National Jewish Monthly Magazine, May 1985
Michael Gibson...
Category
Modern Mid-20th Century Animal Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Price Upon Request