MARC CHAGALL (1887-1985)

This delightful work relates closely to the oil painting of the same subject which Chagall completed shortly after his return to Paris in September 1923 (Philadelphia Museum of Art). The lithograph was made a few months later in 1924. One of the artist’s earliest forays into the medium the image was executed on a single stone and an edition printed in black only. On this rare proof impression Chagall reworked the sheet almost entirely with gouache. Inflected with the artist’s earthy humour, the shape of the green sow in the foreground echoes that of the cheerfully clad peasant woman, who stoops to stop the trough from tipping over, bottom raised in the air. Chagall celebrates the woman’s closeness to the farm animal, a holy communion between human and beast, executed in the palette of a stained glass window.