Marc Chagall L'Ange (The Angel), 1960; Using bold expressive forms, Chagall creates a poignant image depicting an angel and heifer.  Using darkened tones, the artist forces the viewer to draw closer to the work creating an intimate relationship between viewer and composition.

Created in 1960, this image was one of nine color lithographs created to accompany the first volume of The Lithographs of Chagall by Fernand Mourlot.  The work is pulled from an edition of forty aside from the book edition of 100 and is printed on Arches paper.

Emerging from the dark sepia background, the sun explodes highlighting the face and wings of the angel.  Chagall surrounds the angel and heifer with a tranquil blue that conveys a sense of new beginnings and hope free from the barren landscape that surrounds them.  As the angel serves as the focal point of the image, he/she appears focused upon aiding in the passage of the heifer across the ominous landscape.

“It is possible to be gifted in the handling of lines, even on the architectural level.  But what is most important is the blood, and the blood is, for the artist, the colour.  Colour and all its distinctions are the pulse of the organism.  Colour is the pulse of a work of art…  The same can be said about colour as is said about music: “The depth of colour goes through the eyes and remains within the soul, in the same way that music enters the ear and stays in the soul.” [Marc Chagall, excerpt from lecture in Chicago, February 1958]

Catalogue Raisonné & COA:

Marc Chagall L'Ange (The Angel), 1960 is fully documented and referenced in the below catalogue raisonnés and texts (copies will be enclosed as added documentation with the invoices that will accompany the final sale of the work):

1. Mourlot, Fernand, The Lithographs of Chagall 1957-1962, 1963, listed on page 92 and 96-97 as image 288.

2. Cramer, Patrick, Marc Chagall: The Illustrated Books, 1995, listed on pages 148-149 as No. 43.

3. Gauss, Ulrike, Marc Chagall The Lithographs La Collection Sorlier, 1999, listed on page 128 as image 288

About the Framing:

Framed in museum-quality, archival materials, Marc Chagall L'Ange (The Angel), 1960 is set in a Baroque-style gold leaf frame.  The shimmering tones of the gold moulding complements the bold tones in the work, found in the greens, blues, and thick black strokes throughout.  L’Ange is completed with white, linen-wrapped mats and a matching gold inner fillet, finished behind an archival Plexiglas® cover.