Description: This is an exceptional and RARE Vintage French Modern Marc CHAGALL Lithograph Exhibition Poster on Paper (Hand Signed), for Chagall's 1977 -1978 exhibition at the Musee du Louvre Pavillon de Flore and the Musee National d'Art Moderne Centre Georges Pompidou. This original lithographic poster depicts a rendering of Chagall's "Le Soleil de Paris (1977)," which was printed by Charles Sorlier of Paris, France. The publisher was Editions des Musees Nationaux, Paris. The writing on the lower half of this poster reads: "Chagall Peintures Recentes 1967 - 1977. Musee du Louvre Pavillon de Flore du 17 Octobre 1977 au 2 Janvier 1978. Ouvert tous les jours de 9h 45 a 17h Sauf le Mardi. Exposition Organisee par le Musee National d'Art Moderne Centre Georges Pompidou." Some small writing on the edge of the lithograph reads: "Centre Georges Pompidou / Imp. Mourlot." Additionally, some small writing at the lower right edge of this lithograph reads: "CH. SORLIER, GRAVEUR - LITHOGRAPHIE." Most importantly, this artwork is hand-signed and dated in blue felt tip pen in the lower right corner: "Marc Chagall 1977." Approximately 25 1/4 x 33 1/4 inches (including frame.) Actual artwork is approximately 19 1/2 x 30 1/4 inches. Very good condition for age and storage. Acquired from an affluent old collection in Los Angeles County, California. Priced to Sell. If you like what you see, I encourage you to make an Offer. Please check out my other listings for more wonderful and unique artworks! About this Artwork: Artist: Marc Chagall (1887-1985) Title: “Le soleil de Paris (Paris Sun)” Year: c. 1977 Medium: Original lithographic poster Printer: Charles Sorlier, Paris Publisher: Editions des Musées Nationaux, Paris Sheet Size: 19.5”x 30.25” Reference: Sorlier 48 Edition: circa 2500 Condition: Very good overall with original full margins and bold colors Discussion: This lithograph was executed by Charles Sorlier after a work by Marc Chagall, conceived for the artist exhibition at the Musée du Louvre in Paris. “Chagall’s use of some of the most brilliantly vibrant blues are what set Chagall Le soleil de Paris (Paris Sun), 1977 apart from any other. He uses the same shade of bold blue in varying tones and hues to create the beautiful Parisian cityscape which fades into the horizon – with of course the Eiffel Tower peaking in the background. Our soleil de Paris takes center stage as it seems to breathe life into the entire composition. Detailed in a deep red, our sun acts as the heart of Paris, accompanied by its whimsical characters and people that make the city one of the most loved in the world. The bunch of flowers in the bottom left shares some of the warmth of the sun, bringing the light down into the streets of Paris.” (-From Masterworks Fine Art) “Mourlot Studios was a commercial print shop founded in 1852 by the Mourlot family and located in Paris, France. It was also known as Imprimerie Mourlot, Mourlot Freres and Atelier Mourlot. Founded by Francois Mourlot, it started off producing wallpaper. Later, his son Jules Mourlot would expand the business to handle the production of chocolate labels for companies such as Chocolat Poulain, as well as ledgers, maps and stationary. Starting in the 1920s, Jules' son, Fernand Mourlot, converted one of the locations into a studio dedicated to printing fine art lithography. One of the most important contribution of the Mourlot Studio was to be the art poster. For the Eugène Delacroix exhibition in 1930, the Daumier exhibition and the Manet exhibition at the French National Museums, Mourlot became the place where posters were prepared and produced as works of art in their own right. Another important feature would be the production of fine art, limited edition lithographs. The first painters to create lithographs at Mourlot were Vlaminck and Utrillo, despite most artists abandoning the once-popular 19th-century lithography, during the first part of the 20th century. Lithography, which was invented by Aloys Senefelder at the end of the 18th century, reached fame when it was adopted by artists such as Jules Chéret, Toulouse-Lautrec, Bonnard and Vuillard in the 1880s. Beginning in the 1930s, Fernand Mourlot (the grandson of the founder of Mourlot studios) began inviting a new generation of artists to work directly on lithography stones (in the same manner as one does when creating a poster). This expansion of fine art into the printing realm began a previously non-existent partnership between artist and printer which remains to this day. In 1937, the studio created two posters, one by Bonnard and one by Henri Matisse, for the Maitres de l'Art indépendant exhibition at the Petit Palais. Both artists were so impressed by the posters' excellent quality that Mourlot studio became the leading lithographic printer for fine artwork. That same year, the studio also began a long collaboration with the editor Tériade, who founded the legendary art review "Verve." After the Second World War, Mourlot assisted Matisse, Braque, Bonnard, Rouault and Joan Miró in the creation of important lithographs for the review. About the Artist: Marc (Moishe Shagal) Chagall Born: 1887 - Vitebsk, RussiaDied: 1985 - St. Paul de Vence, FranceKnown for: Abstract village peasant theme paintings, public art. Marc Chagall was a man of keen intelligence, a shrewd observer of the contemporary scene, with a great sympathy for human suffering. He was born on July 7, 1887 in Vitebsk, Russia; his original name was Moishe Shagal (Segal), but when he became a foremost member of the Ecole de Paris, he adopted French citizenship and the French spelling of his name. Vitebsk was a good-sized Russian town of over 60,000, not a shtetl. His father supported a wife and eight children as a worker in a herring-pickling plant.Sheltered by the Jewish commandment against graven images, the young Chagall never saw so much as a drawing until, one day, he watched a schoolmate copying a magazine illustration. He was ridiculed for his astonishment, but he began copying and improvising from magazines. Both Chagall's parents reluctantly agreed to let him study with Yehuda Pen, a Jewish artist in Vitebsk. Later, in 1906, they allowed their son to study in St. Petersburg, where he was exposed to Russian Iconography and folk art. At that time, Jews could leave the Pale only for business and employment and were required to carry a permit. Chagall, who was in St. Petersburg without a permit, was imprisoned briefly.His first wife, Bella Rosenfeld, was a product of a rich cultivated and intellectual group of Jews in Vitebsk. Chagall was made commissar for the arts for the area, charged with directing its cultural life and establishing an art school. Russian folklore, peasant life and landscapes persisted in his work all his life. In 1910 a rich patron, a lawyer named Vinaver, staked him to a crucial trip to Paris, where young artists were revolutionizing art. He also sent him a handsome allowance of 125 francs (in those days about $24) each month. Chagall rejected cubism, fauvism and futurism, but remained in Paris. He found a studio near Montparnasse in a famous twelve-sided wooden structure divided into wedge-shaped rooms. Chaim Soutine, a fellow Russian Jew, and Modigliani lived on the same floor. To Chagall's astonishment, he found himself heralded as one of the fathers of surrealism. In 1923, a delegation of Max Ernst, Paul Eluard and Gala (later Salvador Dali's wife) actually knelt before Chagall, begging him to join their ranks. He refused. To understand Chagall's work, it is necessary to know that he was born a Hasidic Jew, heir to mysticism and a world of the spirit, steeped in Jewish lore and reared in the Yiddish language. The Hasidim had a special feeling for animals, which they tried not to overburden. In the mysterious world of Kabbala and fantastic ancient legends of Chagall's youth, the imaginary was as important as the real. His extraordinary use of color also grew out of his dream world; he did not use color realistically, but for emotional effect and to serve the needs of his design. Most of his favorite themes, though superficially light and trivial, mask dark and somber thoughts. The circus he views as a mirror of life; the crucifixion as a tragic theme, used as a parallel to the historic Jewish condition, but he is perhaps best known for the rapturous lovers he painted all his life. His love of music is a theme that runs through his paintings.After a brief period in Berlin, Chagall, Bella and their young daughter, Ida, moved to Paris and in 1937 they assumed French citizenship. When France fell, Chagall accepted an invitation from the Museum of Modern Art to immigrate to the United States. He was arrested and imprisoned in Marseilles for a short time, but was still able to immigrate with his family. The Nazi onslaught caught Chagall in Vichy, France, preoccupied with his work. He was loath to leave; his friend Varian Fry rescued him from a police roundup of Jews in Marseille, and packed him, his family and 3500 lbs. of his art works on board a transatlantic ship. The day before he arrived in New York City, June 23, 1941, the Nazis attacked Russia. The United States provided a wartime haven and a climate of liberty for Chagall. In America he spent the war years designing large backdrops for the Ballet.Bella died suddenly in the United States of a viral infection in September 1944 while summering in upstate New York. He rushed her to a hospital in the Adirondacks, where, hampered by his fragmentary English, they were turned away with the excuse that the hour was too late. The next day she died.He waited for three years after the war before returning to France. With him went a slender married English girl, Virginia Haggard MacNeil; Chagall fell in love with her and they had a son, David. After seven years she ran off with an indigent photographer. It was an immense blow to Chagall's ego, but soon after, he met Valentine Brodsky, a Russian divorcee designing millinery in London (he called her Fava). She cared for him during the days of his immense fame and glory. They returned to France, to a home and studio in rustic Vence. Chagall loved the country and every day walked through the orchards, terraces, etc. before he went to work.Chagall died on March 28, 1985 in the south of France. His heirs negotiated an arrangement with the French state allowing them to pay most of their inheritance taxes in works of art. The heirs owed about $30 million to the French government; roughly $23 million of that amount was deemed payable in artworks. Chagall's daughter, Ida and his widow approved the arrangement.Written and submitted by Jean Ershler Schatz, artist and researcher from Laguna Woods, California.Sources:Hannah Grad Goodman in Homage to Chagall in Hadassah Magazine, June 1985Jack Kroll in Newsweek, April 8, 1985Andrea Jolles in National Jewish Monthly Magazine, May 1985Michael Gibson in ARTnews, September 1988Time Magazine, July 30, 1965
Price: 3500 USD
Location: Orange, California
End Time: 2025-02-02T16:55:14.000Z
Shipping Cost: 45 USD
Product Images
Item Specifics
All returns accepted: ReturnsNotAccepted
Unit of Sale: Single Piece
Artist: Marc Chagall
Signed By: Marc Chagall
Image Orientation: Portrait
Size: Large
Signed: Yes
Period: Contemporary (1970 - 2020)
Title: "Le Soleil de Paris"
Material: Paper
Original/Licensed Reprint: Original
Region of Origin: California, USA
Framing: Framed
Subject: Angels, Animal Head, Birds, Botanical, Boys, Cityscapes, Family, Famous Paintings/Painters, Figures, France, Landscape, Men, Monument, Mythology, Paris, Silhouettes, States & Counties, Working Life
Type: Print
Year of Production: 1977
Item Height: 33 1/4 in
Style: Modernism
Theme: Animals, Architecture, Art, Cities & Towns, Community Life, Continents & Countries, Cultures & Ethnicities, Domestic & Family Life, Events & Festivals, Exhibitions, Famous Places, Fantasy, History, People, Portrait, Social History, Working Life
Features: 1st Edition, Limited Edition, Hand Signed
Production Technique: Lithography
Country/Region of Manufacture: France
Handmade: Yes
Item Width: 25 1/4 in
Time Period Produced: 1970-1979
