Mark Chagall (RUSSIAN, 1887-1985)
Coq Violiniste
Monotype with hand colored additions in gouache
Signed in ink, lower right
Dimensions: 15 3/4 ? 11 inches (40 x 30 cm)
A unique edition
Full margins
Framed and matted
Published by Gerald Cramer, Switzerland
Printed by Jacques Frelaut, Paris
In overall good condition
Cramer 222
Contact department for full condition report

Marc Chagall created this unique monotype in 1974. It has been authenticated by Jean-Louis Prat of the Comite Marc Chagall, and is accompanied by two certificates signed by Prat dated 1987. It is also published and illustrated in the catalogue raisonne of Chagall's monotypes, “Marc Chagall: Monotypes II, 1966-1975,” 1976, by Gerald Cramer, Geneva, no. 222.

"Le Coq Violiniste," a charming work on paper, features well-known imagery from the artist’s childhood in Vitebsk, Russia – a mother and child on horseback rides past a peasant village with a violin-playing red rooster floating above them. Chagall has stated that for him, the rooster symbolized the potency of the artist and the violin signified his enduring love for his Jewish heritage.

To create a monotype, the artist paints on a surface such as glass. The work is then transferred to paper, using a printing press. There is usually only one impression that can be pulled with this process.

Marc Chagall (RUSSIAN, 1887 – 1985)

The Russian painter Marc Chagall is renowned for his biblical motifs. He used the same, recurring symbols in his painted and printed works, as well as in his mosaics and in the windows and stage-sets he designed. As one of the most important artists of the 20th Century the “painter-poet” gave Expressionism a new character. After his first education at private art schools in Saint Petersburg he went to Paris in 1910 where he was involved in the avant-garde art scene. Apart from that, he was also inspired by visits to the salons, exhibitions and museums of this exciting city. After the First World War, during which Chagall was in Russia, he went to Berlin and later returned to Paris. Even after he had immigrated to America in 1941, he returned to his “ville lumière” Paris in 1948. In his lifetime Marc Chagall received many commissions whose preparation and execution took him around the world. He has been honored with numerous international exhibitions, retrospectives and art prizes.