L'Homme au Favoris. Portrait of a Jew - Man with Sideburns. 1923. by Marc Chagall, 1887-1985

Marc Chagall, 1887-1985
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L'Homme au Favoris. Portrait of a Jew - Man with Sideburns. 1923.

Original lithograph in black ink. 1922-23. Signed in pencil. Numbered in pencil (1) from the edition of 35. (There were a very few proofs - perhaps 5 - before the edition). Drawn and printed in Berlin 1922/23. Issued by Paul Cassirer, Berlin 1923. Rare.
Ref: Mourlot-Chagall Lithographs 1. Hatje-Chagall Lithographs 1.
Note: Chagall's first work in the medium of lithography.

Superb rich impression with dense blacks. On pale cream laid hollande-type paper. Image and inner margins in excellent condition; outer sheet edges with some slight signs of old edge mounting; two nicks in the bottom outer sheet edge repaired, longest l/2inch. Full margins. Sheet: 21x15 3/4ins. Image: 161/4x9 l/2ins. (413x242mm)

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'L'Homme au Favoris - Portrait of a Jew with Sideburns' was Chagall's first completed work in the medium of lithography, although the extreme mastery with which the medium is handled suggests that he may have made some as yet undiscovered experiments in the medium at an earlier date, possibly when he was first in Paris. It was drawn in 1922 in Berlin but it stands out in his whole graphic work as one of the single most powerful compositions which he was ever to draw.

Chagall met Paul Cassirer, the art dealer and publisher, in Berlin soon after his arrival there from Russia. It was Cassirer who encouraged him to make the etchings of the Mein Leben series (see nos. 11 and 12 overleaf), and he also put him in touch with a lithography studio. At this stage Chagall worked using transfer paper, but he realised that using very soft lithographic crayons would allow him to achieve a great richness of tone in the final image. In 'Portrait of a Jew with Sideburns', above, there can be seen how Chagall was naturally and immediately aware of how the variations of tone, the interaction of line, solid shading and scraper highlights, which can be uniquely created in lithography could result in a unique visual force of imagery. At the same time there is also his revolutionary and totally personal handling of form and picture perspective.

The edition of 'L 'Homme au Favouris' was only 35 impressions of which this is numbered as the first (1/35). Examples very rarely appear on the market