Lithographs Chagall Vol Set by Cain Julien Fernand Mourlot Charles (1 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Near fine to fine condition. First American edition. Folio (12 3/4 x 10"). 6 volumes, uniformly bound in beige/gray cloth with black lettering to spines and front covers. Each volume with a different dust jacket based on a Chagall image, and 4 of the 6 are original Chagall lithographs. Vol. I: 220, (2)pp. New York: George Brazillier. 1960. With 12 original lithographs. Vol. II: 208, (2)pp. Boston: Boston Book and Art Shop. 1963. With 12 original lithographs. Vol. III: 179, (3)pp. Boston: Boston Book and Art Shop. 1969. With 2 original lithographs. Vol. IV: 180, (4)pp. New York: Crown Publishers. 1974. With 2 original lithographs. Vol. V: 250, (2)pp. New York. Crown Publishers. 1984. Vol. VI: 224, (2)pp. New York. Crown Publishers. 1986. Published over a period of 26 years, this six-volume catalogue raisonné of Chagall's lithographs is richly illustrated with 28 original lithographs (all called for) and list hundreds of Chagall's other lithographs reproduced in color. Volumes I and II contain 24 of the original 28 lithographs published throughout the series; the dust jackets and frontispieces of Volumes III and IV account for the remaining four. Volume V was published near the end of Chagall's life, and Volume VI was published posthumously. For more information, see: Gauss, 391. Freitag 1914. See Cramer, 43, 56, 77, 94. The djs of four volumes (I, IV, V, VI) are protected with their original acetate overlays and Vol. IV is still in the publisher's thin cardboard slipcase. All the lithographic dust jackets are in near fine to fine condition with the exception of Volume III which has a small (1/4" x 1/2") chip at the head of the spine. "Chagall's emblematic irrationality shook off all outside influences: color governed his compositions, calling up chimerical processions of memory where reality and the imaginary are woven into a single legend, born in Vitebsk and dreamed in Paris" (Dictionary of Modern Art). For Chagall, the medium of lithography did not come easily. Printer Fernand Mourlot ran a lithography press where such greats as Braque, Matisse, Picasso, Miró and Chagall came to have their designs printed and to learn about this still nascent printmaking process. "For many long months Chagall came and worked tirelessly, and his dissatisfaction allowed him to have only a few of his first attempts printed" (Sorlier, 45).