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Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

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Period: Mid-20th Century
Marc Chagall - Hommage à Julien Cain - Original Lithograph
Located in Collonge Bellerive, Geneve, CH
Marc Chagall - Original Lithograph Frontispiece for André Dunoyer de Segonzac, and Julien Cain. "Humanisme Actif: Mélanges d'Art et de Littérature Offerts à Julien Cain." Paris: H...
Category

Surrealist Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

The Shepherd - Original Lithograph by Pietro Morando - 1950s
Located in Roma, IT
The Shepherd is an original artwork realized in the 1950s by Italian artist Pietro Morando (Alessandria 1889- 1980). Hand-colored lithography print. Hand-signed on the lower left i...
Category

Modern Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Paul Klee, Winter Sleep, from Verve, Revue Artistique, 1938
Located in Southampton, NY
This exquisite lithograph by Paul Klee (1879–1940), titled Sommeil d’hiver (Winter Sleep), from Verve, Revue Artistique et Litteraire, Vol. I, No. 3, originates from the 1938 issue p...
Category

Modern Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Ubac, Composition, Derrière le miroir (after)
Located in Southampton, NY
Lithograph on vélin paper. Inscription: Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good condition, with centerfold, as issued. Notes: From Derrière le miroir, N° 142, 1964. Published by Aim...
Category

Modern Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Henri Matisse, Mrs. F.H., from Portraits by Henri Matisse, 1954 (after)
Located in Southampton, NY
This exquisite lithograph after Henri Matisse (1869–1954), titled Madame F.H. (Mrs. F.H.), from the album Portraits par Henri Matisse (Portraits by Henri Matisse), originates from th...
Category

Fauvist Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Sketch for the Angel of Mozart
Located in OPOLE, PL
Marc Chagall (1887-1985) - Sketch for the Angel of Mozart Lithograph from 1965. Dimensions of work: 32 x 23.5 cm. Publisher: André Sauret, Monte Carlo. The work is in Excellent c...
Category

Modern Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Montmartre 1900, Lithograph by Kees van Dongen 1965
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Kees van Dongen, Dutch (1877 - 1968) Title: Montmartre 1900 Year: 1965 Medium: Lithograph on Arches, Signed and numbered in ink Edition: 47/100 Image Size: 10.75 x 8.75 inche...
Category

Post-Impressionist Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Fernand Leger, Plate 29, from Circus, 1950
Located in Southampton, NY
This exquisite lithograph by Fernand Leger (1881–1955), titled Planche 29 (Plate 29), from the album Cirque, Lithographies Originales (Circus, Original Lithographs), originates from ...
Category

Modern Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Original Pin-Up - Telephone Call linen backed vintage pinup girl.
Located in Spokane, WA
Behold the original lithographic Petty Pin-up, a unique vertical-format piece. The see-through bathing suit she wears seems to make her glow, especially with her red hair peeking fro...
Category

American Modern Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

The souper dress
Located in Jerusalem, IL
A wonderful piece of unknown edition by Andy Warhol. A silkscreen print on a Cellulose and Cotton dress. Fearing the artist's trade mark Campbell's soup can. In very good condition.
Category

Pop Art Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Textile, Screen

Fleur en Lys - Etching - 1960s
Located in Roma, IT
Etching on chamois-colored laid paper, realized in 1968/69. Plate from "Faust (La Nuit de Walpurgis), published by Argillet, Paris. Edition of 49/150, hand colored. Hand signed an...
Category

Surrealist Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Etching

Dos Contes [Two Tales]
Located in London, GB
Accompanied by four original dry point etchings by Picasso on Lana wove paper Hardcover book Housed in publisher's wooden boards with cloth ties Numbered 97 of 230 copies 16 x 10 in...
Category

Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Etching

DISCOVERY OF GOLD - Very Large Serigraph - WPA Artist - California Murals
Located in Santa Monica, CA
ANTON REFREGIER (1905 – 1979) DISCOVERY OF GOLD, 1949. Color serigraph. Signed and numbered in pencil, edition of 90. Image 23 ¼ x 21 ¾" Large sheet, 29 3/4 x 25 ¼”. Printed title...
Category

American Modern Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Screen

Flute Player and Dog, Modern Woodblock by Irving Amen
Located in Long Island City, NY
Irving Amen, American (1918 - 2011) - Flute Player and Dog, Year: circa 1965, Medium: Woodblock, signed and numbered in pencil, Edition: 74/100, Image Size: 29 x 14 inches, Size:...
Category

Modern Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Woodcut

Wild Pilgrimage (Contemplation) — Story Without Words Graphic Modernism
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Lynd Ward, 'Wild Pilgrimage', No. 26, wood engraving, 1932, edition not stated but very small. Signed in pencil. A fine, black impression, with full margins (1 1/16 to 3 3/16 inches), on tissue-thin cream Japan paper, in very good condition. A scarce, artist-printed, hand-signed proof impression before the published edition. Matted to museum standards, unframed. Created by Lynd Ward for his narrative book of illustrations without words, 'Wild Pilgrimage', published by Harrison Smith...
Category

American Modern Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Woodcut

The Cat - Lithograph by Giselle Halff - 1950s
Located in Roma, IT
The Cat is a lithograph on ivory-colored paper realized by Giselle Halff in 1950 ca. Hand-signed by pencil on the lower right. Numbered. Edition, 19/20. Good conditions, slight fo...
Category

Modern Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Tennis, Art Deco Lithograph by Chuck Wilkinson
Located in Long Island City, NY
Chuck Wilkinson (1932 - 2010) - Tennis, Medium: Lithograph, signed and numbered in pencil, Edition: 300, Image Size: 21.5 x 23 inches, Size: 26.75 x 27.5 in. (67.95 x 69.85 cm), ...
Category

Art Deco Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

" Méditerranée " Unic Tapestry
Located in CANNES, FR
Jean Cocteau (1889 - 1963) "la Méditerranée" (The Mediterranean) circa 1952. Tapisserie de haute lisse ,signée et datée (1952) référencée N°6689 F aux archives Jean Cocteau . comma...
Category

Art Deco Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Tapestry

Icart, Sans titre, Le Sopha (after)
Located in Southampton, NY
La pointe sèche etching on vélin de Rives filigrané à notre nom paper. Paper size: 9.5 x 7.5 inches; image size: 6.5 x 4.5 inches. Inscription: unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. No...
Category

Modern Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Drypoint, Etching

Bouteilles – lithograph, hand-signed and numbered
Located in Zurich, CH
Together with "Les Musiciennes" one of the largest and most sought after lithographs by Le Corbusier – a purist still-life –, printed by Mourlot on Arches after a collage by LC. Pr...
Category

Modern Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Paper

Henri Laurens, Daphne, from Verve, Revue Artistique, 1953
Located in Southampton, NY
This exquisite lithograph by Henri Laurens (1885–1954), titled Daphne (Daphne), from Verve, Revue Artistique et Litteraire, Vol. VII, No. 27–28, originates from the 1953 issue publis...
Category

Modern Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Blessed are the pure in heart / - The Vision of the Child s Eyes -
Located in Berlin, DE
Rudolf Nehmer (1912 Bobersberg - 1983 Dresden), Blessed are the pure in heart, 1948. Woodcut on yellowish wove paper, 17.8 cm x 15.4 cm (image), 35 cm x 25 cm (sheet size), signed “R...
Category

Realist Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Woodcut

Raoul Dufy, The Regattas, from Raoul Dufy, IV, 1969 (after)
Located in Southampton, NY
This exquisite lithograph after Raoul Dufy (1877–1953), titled Les Regates (The Regattas), from the folio Raoul Dufy, IV (Raoul Dufy, IV), Collection Pierre Levy, 1969, originates fr...
Category

Modern Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Lorenzaccio - Sarah Bernhardt (after) Alphonse Mucha Poster, 1969
Located in New York, NY
These beautiful and colorful lithographic posters were hand reproduced by the Mourlot Studio's Master Printer Henri Deschamps in 1969. They are not to be mistaken with later cheap di...
Category

Art Nouveau Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Untitled
Located in Bournemouth, Dorset
James Sellars (1927-2000) Auto-Lithograph, 1952 Image: 23.5 x 16.0 cm Frame: 36.5 x 28.5 cm Produced at the Royal College of Art in 4 colours By The Curwen Press, Pliastow, E.13 Sellars lived and worked in the county and the landscape captured his imagination and features heavily. He taught at Herefordshire College of Art before going on to be appointed head of fine art printmaking at Southampton College of Art. The Test Valley with its chalk downlands, streams and river were a rich source of inspiration for his later work and a natural progression...
Category

Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Untitled
Untitled
$130 Sale Price
20% Off
Carnaval of Flowers, from Nice and the Cote d Azur (Unsigned Proof)
Located in Washington, DC
Artist: Marc Chagall (after) Title: Carnaval of Flowers Portfolio: Nice and the Cote d'Azur Medium: Lithograph Date: 1967 Edition: Unsigned and unnumbered proof (aside from the editi...
Category

Modern Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Digging up glass by David Hockney (Six Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm)
Located in New York, NY
This etching from David Hockney’s celebrated Six Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm portfolio depicts the somewhat obscure story Old Rinkrank, which Hockney chose to illustrate beca...
Category

Modern Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Etching, Aquatint

original lithograph
Located in Henderson, NV
Medium: original lithograph. Printed in Paris in 1967 by Clot, Bramsen et Georges and issued in an edition of 2500 for "Les Temps Situationistes" (The Situationist Times -- a radical...
Category

Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

La Negra (The Black Woman)
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "La Negra (The Black Woman)" from the suite "The Mujeres File" 1969 is an original colors lithograph on B.F.K. Rives paper by renown Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo, 1899-1991. It is hand signed and numbered 150/150 in pencil by the artist. The image size is 26.85 x 21.25 inches, sheet size is 29.5 x 22.15 inches, framed size is 42 x 35 inches. Published by Touchtone Publisher, New York, printed by Ateliers Desjobert, Paris. Referenced and pictured in the artist's catalogue raisonne by Pereda, plate #109 page 107. Custom framed in a wooden silver frame, with silver spacer and fabric matting. It is in excellent condition. About the artist: A native of Oaxaca in Southern Mexico, Rufino Tamayo's father was a shoemaker, and his mother a seamstress. Some accounts state that he was descended from Zapotec Indians, but he was actually 'mestizo' - of mixed indigenous/European ancestry. (Santa Barbara Museum of Art). He began painting at age 11. Orphaned at the age of 12, Tamayo moved to Mexico City, where he was raised by his maternal aunt who owned a wholesale fruit business. In 1917, he entered the San Carlos Academy of Fine Arts, but left soon after to pursue independent study. Four years later, Tamayo was appointed the head designer of the department of ethnographic drawings at the National Museum of Archaeology in Mexico City. There he was surrounded by pre-Colombian objects, an aesthetic inspiration that would play a pivotal role in his life. In his own work, Tamayo integrated the forms and tones of pre-Columbian ceramics into his early still lives and portraits of Mexican men and women. In the early 1920s he also taught art classes in Mexico City's public schools. Despite his involvement in Mexican history, he did not subscribe to the idea of art as nationalistic propaganda. Modern Mexican art at that time was dominated by 'The Three Great Ones' : Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueros, but Tamayo began to be noted as someone 'new' and different' for his blending of the aesthetics of post Revolutionary Mexico with the vanguard artists of Europe and the United States. After the Mexican Revolution, he focused on creating his own identity in his work, expressing what he thought was the traditional Mexico, and refusing to follow the political trends of his contemporary artists. This caused some to see him as a 'traitor' to the political cause, and he felt it difficult to freely express himself in his art. As a result, he decided to leave Mexico in 1926 and move to New York, along with his friend, the composer Carlos Chavez. The first exhibition of Tamayo's work in the United States was held at the Weyhe Gallery, New York, in that same year. The show was successful, and Tamayo was praised for his 'authentic' status as a Mexican of 'indigenous heritage', and for his internationally appealing Modernist aesthetic. (Santa Barbara Museum of Art). Throughout the late thirties and early forties New York's Valentine Gallery gave him shows. For nine years, beginning in 1938, he taught at the Dalton School in New York. In 1929, some health problems led him to return to Mexico for treatment. While there he took a series of teaching jobs. During this period he became romantically involved with the artist Maria Izquierdo...
Category

Modern Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Icart, Sans titre, Le Sopha (after)
Located in Southampton, NY
La pointe sèche etching on vélin de Rives filigrané à notre nom paper. Paper size: 9.5 x 7.5 inches; image size: 6.5 x 4.5 inches. Inscription: unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. No...
Category

Modern Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Drypoint, Etching

Jean Cocteau, In the Cradle of Horns, from Bulls, 1965 (after)
Located in Southampton, NY
This exquisite lithograph after Jean Cocteau (1889–1963), titled Dans le berceau des cornes (In the Cradle of Horns), from the folio Taureaux, Lithographies de Jean Cocteau (Bulls, L...
Category

Modern Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Jean Cocteau (after) - Europe Our Country - Lithograph
Located in Collonge Bellerive, Geneve, CH
Lithograph after a drawing by Jean Cocteau Title: Europe Our Country Signed in the plate Dimensions: 33 x 46 cm Edition: 600 Luxury print edition from the portfolio of Sciaky 1961
Category

Post-Modern Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Art Card: "Joan Crawford Says", 1964 postcard (hand signed by James Rosenquist)
Located in New York, NY
James Rosenquist Art Card: "Joan Crawford Says", 1964 (hand signed by James Rosenquist), ca. 1980 Offset lithograph postcard (Hand Signed by James Rosenquist) Boldly signed by James ...
Category

Pop Art Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Postcard

Icart, Sans titre, Le Sopha (after)
Located in Southampton, NY
La pointe sèche etching on vélin de Rives filigrané à notre nom paper. Paper size: 9.5 x 7.5 inches; image size: 6.5 x 4.5 inches. Inscription: unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. No...
Category

Modern Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Drypoint, Etching

"Juges" from the suite "Les Fleurs du Mal""
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "Juges" from the suite "Les Fleurs du Mal" created in 1937/38, is an original color aquatint on Montval paper by renown French artist Georges Rouault, 1871-1958....
Category

Expressionist Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Aquatint

Jack McClain, (Evening in the City) (NYC)
Located in New York, NY
A moody evening in New York City. The buildings capture the quiet that New York sometimes achieves. Signed and dated in pencil.
Category

American Modern Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Original "Poteries Culinaires" vintage French cooking poster
Located in Spokane, WA
POTERIES CULINAIRES; artist: Eugene Vavasseur (1863 - 1949) antique French stone lithograph. Excellent condition. Linen backed and ready to frame. Original, archival linen back...
Category

American Modern Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Peasant - Russian French Peasant
Located in London, GB
This original lithograph in colours is hand signed in pencil by the artist ‘Marc Chagall’ at the lower right margin. It is also numbered 5 from the edition of 75, at the lower left ...
Category

Surrealist Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Henri Matisse, Series B, Var. 1, Drawings, Themes and Variations, 1943 (after)
Located in Southampton, NY
This exquisite lithograph after Henri Matisse (1869–1954), titled Serie B, var. 1 (Series B, Variation 1), from the album Henri Matisse, Dessins, Themes et Variations (Drawings, Them...
Category

Fauvist Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Dufy, Composition, Les Côtes Normandes (after)
Located in Southampton, NY
Lithograph on grand vélin d'Arches spécial paper. Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good condition with centerfold, as issued. Notes: From the folio, Les Côtes Normandes 1961. Publ...
Category

Modern Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Marc Chagall, The Dance, from Derriere le miroir, 1964
Located in Southampton, NY
This exquisite lithograph by Marc Chagall (1887–1985), titled La Danse (The Dance), from the folio Derriere le miroir, No. 147, originates from the 1964 edition published by Maeght E...
Category

Expressionist Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

"Machu Pichu" - Black and Grey Lithograph #10/200
Located in Soquel, CA
"Machu Pichu" - Black and Grey Lithograph #10/200 Bold black and grey lithograph by David Alfaro Sequeiros (Mexican, 1896-1974). This piece is a high contrast, abstracted landscape....
Category

Contemporary Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Paper, Lithograph

Jean Cocteau - Bulls - Original Lithograph
Located in Collonge Bellerive, Geneve, CH
Original Lithograph by Jean Cocteau Title: Taureaux Signed in the plate Dimensions: 40 x 30 cm Edition: 200 Luxury print edition from the portfolio of Trinckvel 1965 From the last po...
Category

Modern Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Paris Review Poster
Located in New York, NY
A very good impression of this early color offset lithograph on white wove paper. Signed, dated and numbered 8/150 in felt-tip pen and black ink by Rauschenberg...
Category

Modern Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Color, Lithograph, Offset

The Princess in her tower David Hockney Six Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm
Located in New York, NY
One of David Hockney’s Six Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm illustrations, taken from the story of ‘The Little Sea Hare’. This tower was likely inspired by Hockney’s travels throu...
Category

Modern Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Etching, Aquatint

Pasiphae Plate 12: Seule, au pied du grand caroubier
Located in Washington, DC
Artist: Henri Matisse Title: Plate 12: Seule, au pied du grand caroubier (Only, At the Foot of the Great Carob Tree) Portfolio: Pasiphae Medium: Linocut on Arches vellum Date: 1944 E...
Category

Modern Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Linocut

Trois Danseuses (Three Dancers)
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork "Trois Danseuses" (Three Dancers) c.1940 is an etching in sepia on Wove paper after French artist Marie Laurencin, 1883-1956. It his signed in the plate as issue. This is a posthumous impression from the canceled plate. The image (plate mark) is 14.60 x 10.75 inches, sheet size is 16.5 x 12.85 inches. It is in excellent condition, hanging tape mark, small piece of tape and 3 small skinned area are visible on the back only. About the artist: Marie Laurencin, intimate of Braque, Picasso, Matisse and Appollinaire, was born in 1883. She held a celebrated place in the early part of the 20th century during a period when Art exploded with genius. She lived in the Montmartre District of Paris and became part of the circle revolving around the Steins. Though her early portraits show the imprint of the Fauves and Cubists, her romantic and delicate temperament asserted itself against these schools. She was prim, conservative and always wore a kitchen apron...
Category

Impressionist Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Etching

Original Baby in bidet - Manifattura Ceramica Pozzi vintage Italian poster
Located in Spokane, WA
Original poster showing a “Baby in a Bidet”. In Italian it is Maniffatura Ceramica Pozzi. Linen backed in very fine condition, ready to frame. This Italian poster was only know...
Category

American Modern Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Offset

Don Quichotte et l oursin
Located in Hollywood, FL
ARTIST: Salvador Dali TITLE: Don Quichotte et l'oursin MEDIUM: Etching SIGNED: Hand Signed by Salvador Dali EDITION NUMBER: 4/145 MEASUREMENTS: 19" x 25.5" YEAR: 1963 FRAMED: ...
Category

Surrealist Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Etching

Le vieux Roi
Located in OPOLE, PL
This work will be exhibited at Art on Paper NYC, September 4–7, 2025. – Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) – Le Vieux Roi (Old King) Technique: Original lithograph Year: 1959 Dimensions: 64...
Category

Modern Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Henri Matisse, Mrs. Dorothy Parley, Portraits by Henri Matisse, 1954 (after)
Located in Southampton, NY
This exquisite heliogravure after Henri Matisse (1869–1954), titled Madame Dorothy Parley (Mrs. Dorothy Parley), from the album Portraits par Henri Matisse (Portraits by Henri Matiss...
Category

Fauvist Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

ONE MAN BAND
Located in Santa Monica, CA
MARY LOUISE FRY FINLEY (1908 - 1964) ONE MAN BAND c1950 . Signed and numbered 11/20 in pencil and with the k in a circle, the signature of Los Angeles Master printer Lynton Kistle...
Category

Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Henri Laurens, Apollo, from Verve, Revue Artistique, 1953
Located in Southampton, NY
This exquisite lithograph by Henri Laurens (1885–1954), titled Apollon (Apollo), from Verve, Revue Artistique et Litteraire, Vol. VII, No. 27–28, originates from the 1953 issue publi...
Category

Modern Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Large George Grosz 1923 Lithograph Die Rauber German Expressionism WPA Realism
Located in Surfside, FL
From The robbers. lithographs by George Grosz for the drama of the same name. photolithography on laid paper. 19 X 25.5 inches (sheet size). This is not hand signed or numbered in ...
Category

American Modern Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Marc Chagall - Homage to Marc Chagall - Original Lithograph
Located in Collonge Bellerive, Geneve, CH
Marc Chagall Original Lithograph 1969 From the revue XXe Siecle, edition of 12,000 Unsigned, as issued Dimensions: 32 x 24 Condition : Excellent Reference: Mourlot 572 Marc Chagall (born in 1887) Marc Chagall was born in Belarus in 1887 and developed an early interest in art. After studying painting, in 1907 he left Russia for Paris, where he lived in an artist colony on the city’s outskirts. Fusing his own personal, dreamlike imagery with hints of the fauvism and cubism popular in France at the time, Chagall created his most lasting work—including I and the Village (1911)—some of which would be featured in the Salon des Indépendants exhibitions. After returning to Vitebsk for a visit in 1914, the outbreak of WWI trapped Chagall in Russia. He returned to France in 1923 but was forced to flee the country and Nazi persecution during WWII. Finding asylum in the U.S., Chagall became involved in set and costume design before returning to France in 1948. In his later years, he experimented with new art forms and was commissioned to produce numerous large-scale works. Chagall died in St.-Paul-de-Vence in 1985. The Village Marc Chagall was born in a small Hassidic community on the outskirts of Vitebsk, Belarus, on July 7, 1887. His father was a fishmonger, and his mother ran a small sundries shop in the village. As a child, Chagall attended the Jewish elementary school, where he studied Hebrew and the Bible, before later attending the Russian public school. He began to learn the fundamentals of drawing during this time, but perhaps more importantly, he absorbed the world around him, storing away the imagery and themes that would feature largely in most of his later work. At age 19 Chagall enrolled at a private, all-Jewish art school and began his formal education in painting, studying briefly with portrait artist Yehuda Pen. However, he left the school after several months, moving to St. Petersburg in 1907 to study at the Imperial Society for the Protection of Fine Arts. The following year, he enrolled at the Svanseva School, studying with set designer Léon Bakst, whose work had been featured in Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. This early experience would prove important to Chagall’s later career as well. Despite this formal instruction, and the widespread popularity of realism in Russia at the time, Chagall was already establishing his own personal style, which featured a more dreamlike unreality and the people, places and imagery that were close to his heart. Some examples from this period are his Window Vitebsk (1908) and My Fianceé with Black Gloves (1909), which pictured Bella Rosenfeld, to whom he had recently become engaged. The Beehive Despite his romance with Bella, in 1911 an allowance from Russian parliament member and art patron Maxim Binaver enabled Chagall to move to Paris, France. After settling briefly in the Montparnasse neighborhood, Chagall moved further afield to an artist colony known as La Ruche (“The Beehive”), where he began to work side by side with abstract painters such as Amedeo Modigliani and Fernand Léger as well as the avant-garde poet Guillaume Apollinaire. At their urging, and under the influence of the wildly popular fauvism and cubism, Chagall lightened his palette and pushed his style ever further from reality. I and the Village (1911) and Homage to Apollinaire (1912) are among his early Parisian works, widely considered to be his most successful and representative period. Though his work stood stylistically apart from his cubist contemporaries, from 1912 to 1914 Chagall exhibited several paintings at the annual Salon des Indépendants exhibition, where works by the likes of Juan Gris, Marcel Duchamp and Robert Delaunay were causing a stir in the Paris art world. Chagall’s popularity began to spread beyond La Ruche, and in May 1914 he traveled to Berlin to help organize his first solo exhibition, at Der Sturm Gallery. Chagall remained in the city until the highly acclaimed show opened that June. He then returned to Vitebsk, unaware of the fateful events to come. War, Peace and Revolution In August 1914 the outbreak of World War I precluded Chagall’s plans to return to Paris. The conflict did little to stem the flow of his creative output, however, instead merely giving him direct access to the childhood scenes so essential to his work, as seen in paintings such as Jew in Green (1914) and Over Vitebsk (1914). His paintings from this period also occasionally featured images of the war’s impact on the region, as with Wounded Soldier (1914) and Marching (1915). But despite the hardships of life during wartime, this would also prove to be a joyful period for Chagall. In July 1915 he married Bella, and she gave birth to a daughter, Ida, the following year. Their appearance in works such as Birthday (1915), Bella and Ida by the Window (1917) and several of his “Lovers” paintings give a glimpse of the island of domestic bliss that was Chagall’s amidst the chaos. To avoid military service and stay with his new family, Chagall took a position as a clerk in the Ministry of War Economy in St. Petersburg. While there he began work on his autobiography and also immersed himself in the local art scene, befriending novelist Boris Pasternak, among others. He also exhibited his work in the city and soon gained considerable recognition. That notoriety would prove important in the aftermath of the 1917 Russian Revolution when he was appointed as the Commissar of Fine Arts in Vitebsk. In his new post, Chagall undertook various projects in the region, including the 1919 founding of the Academy of the Arts. Despite these endeavors, differences among his colleagues eventually disillusioned Chagall. In 1920 he relinquished his position and moved his family to Moscow, the post-revolution capital of Russia. In Moscow, Chagall was soon commissioned to create sets and costumes for various productions at the Moscow State Yiddish Theater, where he would paint a series of murals titled Introduction to the Jewish Theater as well. In 1921, Chagall also found work as a teacher at a school for war orphans. By 1922, however, Chagall found that his art had fallen out of favor, and seeking new horizons he left Russia for good. Flight After a brief stay in Berlin, where he unsuccessfully sought to recover the work exhibited at Der Sturm before the war, Chagall moved his family to Paris in September 1923. Shortly after their arrival, he was commissioned by art dealer and publisher Ambroise Vollard to produce a series of etchings for a new edition of Nikolai Gogol's 1842 novel Dead Souls. Two years later Chagall began work on an illustrated edition of Jean de la Fontaine’s Fables, and in 1930 he created etchings for an illustrated edition of the Old Testament, for which he traveled to Palestine to conduct research. Chagall’s work during this period brought him new success as an artist and enabled him to travel throughout Europe in the 1930s. He also published his autobiography, My Life (1931), and in 1933 received a retrospective at the Kunsthalle in Basel, Switzerland. But at the same time that Chagall’s popularity was spreading, so, too, was the threat of Fascism and Nazism. Singled out during the cultural "cleansing" undertaken by the Nazis in Germany, Chagall’s work was ordered removed from museums throughout the country. Several pieces were subsequently burned, and others were featured in a 1937 exhibition of “degenerate art” held in Munich. Chagall’s angst regarding these troubling events and the persecution of Jews in general can be seen in his 1938 painting White Crucifixion. With the eruption of World War II, Chagall and his family moved to the Loire region before moving farther south to Marseilles following the invasion of France. They found a more certain refuge when, in 1941, Chagall’s name was added by the director of the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York City to a list of artists and intellectuals deemed most at risk from the Nazis’ anti-Jewish campaign. Chagall and his family would be among the more than 2,000 who received visas and escaped this way. Haunted Harbors Arriving in New York City in June 1941, Chagall discovered that he was already a well-known artist there and, despite a language barrier, soon became a part of the exiled European artist community. The following year he was commissioned by choreographer Léonide Massine to design sets and costumes for the ballet Aleko, based on Alexander Pushkin’s “The Gypsies” and set to the music of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. But even as he settled into the safety of his temporary home, Chagall’s thoughts were frequently consumed by the fate befalling the Jews of Europe and the destruction of Russia, as paintings such as The Yellow Crucifixion...
Category

Surrealist Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Pablo Picasso, "Carnet de la Californie", original lithograph
Located in Chatsworth, CA
This piece is an original crayon lithograph on transfer paper created by Pablo Picasso in 1959. The zinc in this piece has been re-worked with crayon marks and this composition was u...
Category

Surrealist Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Toadstool - Woodcut by Maurits Cornelis Escher - 1931
Located in Roma, IT
Woodcut print realized by Escher for the series "Emblemata", and published in 1931. On Hollande van Gelder paper. Edition of 300. Unsigned, as issued. Excellent condition, matted....
Category

Modern Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Woodcut

John E. Billmyer, Flower Piece, WPA wood engraving
Located in New York, NY
'Flower Piece' shows the artist, John Billmyer, to be a highly accomplished wood engraver. There are endless patterns and created details -- all executed flawlessly. Mostly made up o...
Category

American Modern Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Woodcut

Untitled from In the Bottom of My Garden (Plate 17)
Located in Washington, DC
Artist: Andy Warhol Title: Untitled (Plate 17) Portfolio: In the Bottom of My Garden Medium: Offset lithograph and watercolor on paper Date: 1956 Frame Size: 15 3/4" x 18 3/8" Sheet ...
Category

Pop Art Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Fisherman
Located in Belgrade, MT
This etching by Lucien Coutard is part of my private collection since the 1970's. It is signed. Lucien Courtard created surrealist depictions of sexuality, he called it Eroticism and...
Category

Surrealist Mid-20th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Etching, Lithograph

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