Description

Lithographic reproduction by Charles Sourlier from a large original print, “The Magician of Paris,” 1970.

Due to its success, this poster was reprinted during the exhibition. As the stones used for the first printing had worn down, it was necessary to redo the engraving, which explains the slight differences between the two prints.

For his retrospective exhibition, and based on the large poster Chagall created from a painting, he had to provide the subject for a smaller poster. To do this, he made the following four lithographs to have different options, which would later prove difficult. Paris becomes the subject of three of the designs. Chagall finally decided on the first, which corresponds to what André Breton wrote: “Only with him does metaphor make its triumphant entry into modern painting.” This multicolored juggler, offering modest flowers to Paris, is himself, the dreamy vagabond of the world of painter-poets; He gives his most precious possessions to the capital of his adopted country, which denounces him: his love and his works. This lithograph was reproduced in a small format to be used as an exhibition poster.