Marc Chagall - Editions & Works on Paper New York Monday, October 24, 2022 | Phillips

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  • On the occasion of his retrospective at the Grand Palais (1969-70), Chagall was to create the motif for a small poster. It is for this purpose that he engraved four plates, in order to allow himself a choice which would prove to be difficult. These three projects (one of them has two versions) have Paris as their theme. If Chagall ultimately chose Le Magicien de Paris I, it was because, as André Breton wrote, 'metaphor alone marks its triumphal entry into modern painting'. Chagall joins here, perhaps unconsciously, the fabliau of the juggler of Notre-Dame. This multicolored stunt performer offering humble flowers to Paris, it is he, a wandering wanderer dreaming of the world of painter-poets, donating to the adopted capital which pays homage to him his most precious possessions: his love and his works. — Charles Sorlier and Fernand Mourlot

    • Literature

      Fernand Mourlot 597

    • Catalogue Essay

      Each from his own corner we dragged ourselves towards Paris. Not to make a career: there was little hope, at that time, of getting there. But to be able to express ourselves differently, entirely, and above all to find plastic means to exteriorize what we feel.
      We do not know how to explain this: but, during the last two centuries, it is only in the air of Paris that we have been able to see the qualities and the defects of a painting.
      I left my native country in 1910. At that time, I decided that I needed Paris.
      I came here because I was looking for its light, its freedom, its refinement and the delicacy of the craft. Paris has enlightened my dark world like a sun.
      Marc Chagall

1

Le Magicien de Paris I (The Magician of Paris I) (M. 597)

1969
Lithograph in colors, on Arches paper, with full margins.
I. 35 1/2 x 24 1/2 in. (90.2 x 62.2 cm)
S. 40 x 26 3/4 in. (101.6 x 67.9 cm)

Signed and numbered 29/50 in pencil (there were also 25 artist's proofs), unframed.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
$15,000 - 25,000 

Sold for $22,680

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Editions & Works on Paper

New York Auction 24 - 26 October 2022