"Vers la Rive (#4)" from Marc Chagall's 'Poèmes', 1968. This artwork is a color woodcut on Rives wove paper from the edition of 238. The image size is 13 x 10". The artwork ships framed and accompanied by a certificate of authenticity.
In 1968, Marc Chagall completed his captivating suite Poèmes, a portfolio of 24 original woodcuts paired with 24 poems he had written, a rare moment in his long career when word and image met on equal terms. The bold, dream-touched forms and vivid color of the prints reflect Chagall’s poetic imagination at full flowering, while the poems deepen the emotional landscape and invite quiet reflection. As Chagall’s granddaughter, Meret Meyer, wrote, the marriage of illustration and word in this work “opens unsuspected doors… where words fail and where the line is set free.”
Published in an exceptionally limited edition of just 238 sets by Éditions Gérald Cramer in Geneva, Les Poèmes exemplifies the highest level of printmaking craftsmanship, rendered in woodcut on fine Rives or Japon paper. Chagall’s Poèmes offer an opportunity to own an intimate masterpiece of modern printmaking – luminous, poetic, and alive.
(Translated from the original French text):
TOWARDS THE RIVER BANK
An old house, blind,
The night inside totally black
I left first
Reaching out my hand
I see the river, the cold waters
Towards the bank, in the evening, I walk
A prayer flowing in me
Singing in the depths of the waters.
Come close, white cloud
Carry me to the heights
I can hear bells ringing down there
And smoke rising from the houses
My mouth wants to say a word
For the parents beneath the snow
As long as you carry me, my breath,
I am with them
Did you forget me, my town
I hear your waters in my body
Sitting on your banks I was hoping
For your call
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