Profile and Red Child
Details
Edition
Book Edition
Medium
Lithograph
Signature
Unsigned
Unframed Dimensions
12.5 x 9.5 in
31.75 x 24.13 cm
Year
1960
MORE FROM THIS ARTIST
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Marc Chagall (1887–1985) is considered to be one of the most influential modernist artists of the 20th Century. With a career spanning more than eight decades, Marc Chagall was influenced by many of the contemporary artistic movements he encountered in France and Germany; his subjects and decorative lyricism, however, reveal his love of Russian folk art and his roots in Judaism. The first of nine children born into a modest Jewish family in Vitebsk, Belarus, Chagall began his studies in Saint Petersburg at the Imperial Society for the Protection of the Arts. In 1910, Chagall moved to Paris to further his artistic studies where he was associated with Guillaume Apollinaire and Robert Delaunay, while encountering Fauvism and Cubism. Chagall became an integral part of what later became known as the Ecole de Paris and is known for his colorful and illustrative artworks steeped in his Jewish heritage, often including memories of his home and it's folk culture.
Chagall visited Russia in 1914, and was prevented from returning to Paris by the outbreak of World War I and events connected with the Russian Revolution. In 1923, Chagall was finally able to return to Paris with his family, where he was introduced to the renowned Paris art dealer and publisher Ambroise Vollard who personally facilitated the growth of Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cezanne, Pablo Picasso and more. Vollard commissioned several illustrated engravings from him, including a series of etchings and engravings that illustrated the Bible in 1931.
Chagall stayed working in France until its occupation by the Nazis, narrowly escaping to New York with his wife in May 1941. In New York, Chagall got back in touch with many friends, writers and artists who were also refugees: Léger, Mondrian and Breton to name a few and began exhibiting at the famed Pierre Matisse Gallery. By the end of the war, Chagall had gained worldwide recognition: The Museum of Modern Art, New York, gave him a retrospective in 1946 and in 1948, Chagall returned to Paris where he produced a great many lithographs and engravings for iconic publishers like Tériade and Maeght. An exhibition of Chagall's work from 1967 to 1977 was held at the Musée du Louvre, Paris, in 1977-78, and a major retrospective was held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1985. Marc Chagall continued to work right up until his death in March of 1985 at Saint-Paul-de-Vence where he is buried.
