La Fontaine’s Fables
This collection of timeless tales of simple country folk, heroes from Greek mythology, and, especially, familiar beasts of the field behaving like fallible humans, was the perfect vehicle for Chagall's quirky imagination with his deep roots in Russian farm life and great affection for its people and animals.
The French art dealer and publisher, Ambroise Vollard, placed before Chagall a daring commission: 100 color gouaches illustrating the masterwork of the great 17th century French poet Jean de la Fontaine's Fables.
When it soon became apparent that Chagall's colors were too complex for the printing processes available at the time, he decided instead to create black-and-white etchings based on his gouaches, to which he would add watercolors.
The Fables was published in 1930 in an edition of 200 portfolios, out of which 85 exemplars were applied by Chagall with watercolors by hand.
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