Portfolio: XXth Century

Medium: Lithograph on Rivoli

Edition: Unnumbered

Sheet Size: 19" x 12"

Publisher: Chagall Monumental works (Special Issue of the XXe Siecle Review). Lazzaro, G. di San (Hrsg.) New York: Tudor Publishing Company, 1973

Reference: Mourlot 699, Cramer 93

This piece is an original lithograph, often titled "Homecoming" or simply "Untitled (for Chagall Monumental)."

Unlike a poster or an offset reproduction (which are just photos of a painting), this is an original graphic work. Marc Chagall worked directly on the lithographic stones or plates to create this image specifically for this publication.

The image was created for a special issue of the art review XXe Siècle (20th Century) dedicated to Chagall’s "Monumental” works—his massive stained glass windows, murals, and tapestries. This lithograph captures that same sweeping, grand energy in a smaller format.

The references listed (Mourlot 699 and Cramer 93) are the official "pedigree" of the work. Fernand Mourlot was the master printer who worked with Picasso, Matisse, and Chagall. Being listed in the Mourlot Catalogue Raisonné guarantees that this is a recognized part of Chagall's body of work. This lithograph, often titled "Homecoming" or "Monumental," is a visual summary of Marc Chagall’s entire life philosophy. Created when he was 86 years old, it is a work of nostalgia and synthesis. 

The background almost always features the slanted roofs and church domes of Vitebsk (his childhood home in Belarus). For Chagall, this represents roots and identity. Even though he lived in Paris and New York, his soul never left that village.

You will see figures floating above the town. In Chagall's language, this represents love liberating us from physics. Love (and art) allows humans to transcend the suffering of the real world. While he was famous for giant public works in 1973, this lithograph was his way of saying, "My heart is still in the small, intimate moments of village life." It captures the specific moment when Chagall was the most famous living artist in the world. By 1973, Picasso had just died. Chagall was the last surviving giant of the "School of Paris." This piece is a victory lap: a confident, loose, joyful expression from an artist who had survived the Russian Revolution, two World Wars, and the Holocaust, and still chose to paint about love and joy.