Marc Chagall Fin d`Absalon (From the series “The Bible”)
Eatching
Size:
Total size of passepartout 65 x 50 cm
Image with backing paper 45 x 33.5 cm
Picture 31 x 24 cm
Cover Japanese paperimage
Text on the passepartout: S.268 Eau-forte originale Chagall
(inscribed and signed by Fin d`Absalon
the artist on the passepartout) Planche 70 de la Bible
Translation:
S.268 Original-Radierung Chagall
Das Ende von Absalom
Tafel 70 der Bibel
S.268 Original Etching Chagall
The End of Absalom
Plate 70 from the Bible
Details: MEDIUM Original etching
Date of work 1958
Edition: 100 (Despite the circulation not frequently)
Good condition (according to age)
Titled by the artist on the reverse
About the Work (1958)
This etching is from Chagall's sublime Bible series. It took nearly ten years to complete, comprises over 100 etchings, and was the third of Chagall's series of etchings commissioned by publisher Ambroise Vollard. Chagall's Jewish identity had always informed his work; in this major series, which he began in 1930, it was to be the focus.
Chagall began the project during a time of economic uncertainty, traveling to Palestine in 1931 for inspiration. He worked on the plates throughout the 1930s, even as anti-Semitic violence and the rise of the Nazis threatened the project's existence. In January 1934, the project suffered a severe blow when Vollard withdrew his financial support due to the Depression, but Chagall continued unabated. The first 66 plates were completed by 1939, and the final 39 had already been begun; But after Vollard's untimely death and the outbreak of World War II, the project was postponed.
It wasn't resumed until 1952, when Chagall turned to the 39 unfinished sheets. The series was completed in 1956, and a new publisher was found in Tériade. The last 105 etchings, characterized by an exquisite interweaving of hatched, scratched, and incised lines, are considered Chagall's greatest and most personal work as a printmaker. "If we had nothing of Chagall except his Bible," wrote Meyer Schapiro, a writer and close friend, "he would be a great modern artist for us."