Bidspirit auction | Original Chagall Aquatint & Gouache

Original Chagall Aquatint & Gouache Lithograph - Marc Chagall (French/Russian, 1887-1985). Aquatint and gouache over lithograph print on paper. Featuring Chagall's signature surrealist style, depicting flying lovers and dreamlike figures in vibrant color against a muted background. Pencil signed and inscribed ”Frontish” along the lower right; pencil inscribed ”epreuve rehaussee” along the lower left designating the medium. With a Timothy Yarger Fine Art label adhered along the verso. With a Certificate of Authenticity from The Comite Marc Chagall, France. Provenance: Timothy Yarger Fine Art Gallery, California, 1998; Private Minnesota Collection. Lot Essay: Marc Chagall resisted being confined to any artistic movement or label. Although often associated with Surrealism, due to drawing inspiration from dreams, memory, and imagination, he rejected the term. His work is filled with recurring themes from his life: recollections of his childhood in Russia, his native village of Vitebsk, floating lovers, mythical creatures from folklore, and his beloved adopted city of Paris. Renowned for his extraordinary mastery of color lithography, Chagall is widely recognized as the foremost color lithographer of the 20th century. Born in Vitebsk, Russia, in 1887 to a deeply religious Jewish family, Chagall began his artistic training with a local painter before moving to St. Petersburg in 1907. There, he studied at the Imperial School for the Protection of the Fine Arts and later under Leon Bakst. From 1910 to 1914, he lived in Paris, where he encountered Cubism. While its influence can be seen in his work, Chagall forged his own distinctive style, combining modernism with fantasy, symbolism, and vivid color. In 1914, Chagall returned to Russia for what was intended to be a brief visit, but the outbreak of World War I forced him to remain. Following the Russian Revolution, he was appointed Fine Arts Commissar for the Vitebsk province and founded and directed an art academy. In 1923, he returned to Paris and entered one of the most productive periods of his career, traveling extensively through Egypt, Palestine, Holland, Spain, Portugal, and Italy. The rise of antisemetic persecution profoundly altered Chagall's life. As a Jewish artist, his work was denounced as ”degenerate, ” and he was briefly detained in Marseille after Germany occupied France. In 1941, with the help of the International Rescue Committee and American journalist Varian Fry, Chagall and his family escaped Europe. He was among approximately 1,500 artists and intellectuals targeted by the Fascist regime. Chagall spent the war years in New York as a refugee before returning to Paris in the autumn of 1947. Chagall never forgot the experience of displacement. In the late 1960s, he joined fellow artists Joan Miro, Andre Masson, and others in contributing to the International Rescue Committee's Flight portfolio, an initiative organized by Varian Fry to support the IRC's humanitarian mission. Centered on the refugee experience, the portfolio continues to raise funds and awareness for displaced people around the world. Reflecting the optimism that remained at the heart of both his life and his art, Chagall wrote: ”Despite all the troubles of our world, in my heart I have never given up on the love in which I was brought up or on man's hope in love.” Sight; height: 15 1/4 in x width: 11 1/4 in. Framed; height: 25 in x width: 20 3/4 in x depth: 1 1/2 in. Condition: The colors are bold and bright. There are no visible tears or losses. The sheet is unevenly toned; evidence of mat burn where the sheet meets the mat. There is undulation to the sheet. Floated in frame under a linen mat. Framed under plexiglass. Some wear to the frame, including small chips. Not inspected out of frame.