ArtBohemia

Marc Chagall: The Fables of La Fontaine (1927-1930)
In 1927, Chagall began working on another project for Vollard, a series of etchings illustrating The Fables of La Fontaine. In these plates we move from the fantastic Russia of Chagall’s imagination and memory to the more dream-like world of ancient myth and fable, told and retold, changing from time to time and place to place, but ultimately always the same. Technically these works differ greatly from those of the Dead Souls. As Meyer comments, "Compared with the last sheets for Dead Souls, in the new plates the painterly content appears enormously increased. Chagall now foregoes the application of aquatint and use of the rocking tool; also dry point technique is scarcely evident. Instead, he does everything by means of etching, and covers the engraved surface with stopping out varnish, a combination that makes for intensive painterly effects. The etching needle draws the most delicately ramified foliage and bush patterns, the texture of plumage and soft fur, and through shadings and cross-hatchings gives a range of tonalities . . . from white to a deep black. . . . Thus each picture is the result of a long series of working stages in the course of which the pictorial design in light and dark is slowly worked out in a process comparable to the building up of the color structure in a painting." The Fables illustrate the grand themes of life that interested Chagall in his other works, especally the Biblle: love, death, and human folly. One of our etchings tells the story of the wanderer who was welcomed into the cave of a family of satyrs. After watching him first blow upon his hands to warm them and then upon his soup to cool it, the satyrs become fearful and ask him to leave, deciding that there is no trusting a man who can blow both hot and cold. In the other, a fox and a goat leap into a well together then find they cannnot get out. The fox suggests that the goat let him climb up its back and then out of the well, promising to pull the goat up after he is free. The goat agrees, only to be lectured by the fox on the stupidity about jumping into wells out of which one cannot climb. The moral is "better think of the outcome before you begin."

The etchings for The Fables were executed by Chagall between 1927 and 1930; The Fables was issued in an edition of 200 portfolios on Montval, 40 of which also contained a suite of the etchings on japon nacre and 85 of which contained a suite with hand-coloring by Chagall. In addition, there were 15 portfolios hors commerce. There were also 100 sets of the etchings only on paper with wide margins, each of which was signed and numbered (but not hand-colored).
In 1926, French art dealer and publisher Ambroise Vollard commissioned Marc Chagall to illustrate 100 legendary fables by La Fontaine (1621-1695). But with the advent of World War II and private acquisitions, the paintings ended up dispersed throughout Europe; the whereabouts of more than half are currently unknown. The remaining 44 illustrations are united in this handsome, slipcased volume. Essays that set both Chagall's illustrations and La Fontaine's timeless fables in their historical contexts are included, as well as a detailed biography of the artist. The colorful, whimsically designed fable texts, which curve and arch in response to Chagall's pictures, are just one refreshing element of this inventively constructed package, which measures only 8 1/4 by 9 3/8 inches.

Synopsis
Chagall's gouaches illustrate forty-three of La Fontaine's fables, including "The Fox and the Grapes".
There was nationalist outcry in the French press, attacking the choice of a Russian artist to illustrate the beloved French fables. Vollard originally wanted Chagall to do colour engravings in the 19th Century manner and the artist executed one hundred preliminary gouaches but the technical difficulties in reproducing them were so great that Chagall abandoned colour and etched one hundred copper plates to be printed in black. He completed them in the three years between 1927 and 1930, the remarkable biting technique is reminiscent of the first golden age of the pure painter etcher. Drypoint is used only very little and aquatint not at all so that the endlessly graduated tone, the painterly chiaroscuro, is achieved almost entirely through varied biting. The etchings retain a mysterious transparentness and in this loose textured medium the fusion of the bodies of man and beast completely serves Chagall’s dream fantasies.
The etchings remained unpublished until 1952 when they were issued by Tériade in an edition of two hundred copies only.

In 1928-31, Chagall produced a series of black and white etchings inspired by the La Fontaine's Fables, also published by Vollard, who became Chagall's mentor and source of inspiration with his concepts for print projects. In these works the artist employed every conceivable etching technique in an effort to bestow upon them a painterly quality. At roughly the same time, Vollard had the vision to commission from Chagall a series of gouache paintings based on circus imagery. These two projects stirred the fertile imagination of Marc Chagall and he spawned amazing imagery that influenced many of his later works. This was a happy, busy time for Chagall. He was able to enjoy the lifestyle of a successful artist in the French City of Light and this was reflected in festive, elegant and romantic compositions he painted often portraying his wife, Bella and himself. In the early 1930's the economic and political crisis that beset Europe also had its effect upon Chagall. Nazi persecution of the Jews made the artist more aware of his own Jewish roots and caused him to long for a more serious type of artistic expression of deeper significance to the human condition. Vollard's 1931 commission of 100 etchings depicting the Bible coincided perfectly with the artist's mood and he responded immediately by travelling to the Holy Land to absorb the setting of the Old Testament. There he was moved by the solemn beauty of the area and its splendid light as he began work on a project and a body of images that would continue to play a major role in his future work. This commission marked the beginning of the religious side of the artist's work. At the outset of WWII which nearly coincided with Ambroise Vollard's death in an automobile accident, two-thirds of the plates were completed with most of the balance already started. In this same period of time Chagall had traveled to Spain in 1934 to study the works of Velazquez, Goya and El Greco, and in 1937 he journeyed to Italy to contemplate the works of Titian. From these pilgrimages he derived the concept of painting on a larger scale, with a more diverse color palette and a greater depth of meaning.