Le Mariage. Jewish Wedding. by Marc Chagall, 1887-1985

Marc Chagall, 1887-1985
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Le Mariage. Jewish Wedding.

Original etching with aquatint printed in colours. 1968. Signed in pencil. Numbered in pencil (31) from the edition of 50. (There were also 50 impressions in black ink only). Issued by Gerald Cramer, Geneva 1968.
Provenance: Private Collection, Nice. Bought c.1970.
Ref: Cramer - 30 Ans d'Activite Eauxfortes de Chagall no 32.

Superb rich impression with fresh colours. On pale cream special wove paper with the special Chagall 'Hand and Bouquet' watermark. Excellent original condition; not restored. Full margins. Sheet: 29 1/2 x 22 l/2ins. Plate: 24 1/4 x 17 3/8ins (615x443mm)

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'Le Mariage' is one of the most famous and most frequently illustrated large scale prints from the period in the late 1960's when Chagall became interested in working in colour aquatint rather than in colour etching. In contrast to lithography the aquatint medium gave him a way of introducing texture through the surface of the copperplate bitten with brush-drawn 'lavis'. He used this texture, with the various densities of bite, to make a pattern of ink tone, which, combined with the colour, and the style of the short 'dabbed' strokes, gives the image a quality of exceptional surface mobility and vibrancy.

This composition has become an icon on the theme of a Jewish wedding, with all the
traditional attributes of that ceremony mixed with the typical fanciful forms of Chagall's pictorial language - the cock, the fish self-portrait, the fiddler, the bouquet of flowers.