Fables Jean de La Fontaine illustrated by Marc Chagall

Written in French.

3rd edition reviewed and corrected

In 1926, shortly after leaving Russia for France, Marc Chagall was commissioned by the merchant and art publisher Ambroise Vollard to illustrate Les Fables de Jean de La Fontaine.

Due to the cost of the first printing tests, only a few plates were...

Written in French.

3rd edition reviewed and corrected

In 1926, shortly after leaving Russia for France, Marc Chagall was commissioned by the merchant and art publisher Ambroise Vollard to illustrate Les Fables de Jean de La Fontaine.

Due to the cost of the first printing tests, only a few plates were engraved on the hundred or so gouaches made. These gave rise to three exhibitions presented successively in 1930 in Paris, Brussels and Berlin, before being dispersed, while the prints were published by Tériade in 1952.

The album, now re-released, presents 43 of the gouaches made by Chagall. Although not well known, they occupy a crucial place in the artist's work since they mark a break with the Judeo-Russian imagination of the origins as much as the influence of the cubist avant-gardes and constructivist movements that Chagall had known in previous years.