The Path of poetryRussia/France/United States, 1909-1947.
Dream and Reality.
It is usually reality that sets the tone for the main themes Chagall paints, but they are often transformed radically by dreams. He thus creates an odd and marvellous world that is alien to painting of the period.
The Light of Colour.
The light that pervades Chagall’s painting stems from a palette of transparencies and oriental tones which construct the major sequences of his oeuvre. Marc Chagall sums up this pictorial reality in the word chemistry.
Tales and Fables.
Gogol’s Dead Souls and La Fontaine’s Fables possess the same sense of freedom and the absolute as Chagall’s own approach to these essential authors. The satirical and the picturesque are predominant in these engravings, which capture with full intensity the eloquent scenes of their authors, one Russian the other French. Chagall illustrated these two great books between 1924 and 1927, commissioned by Ambroise Vollard. They were published in 1948 and 1952 respectively by Tériade.