BOLDLY INSCRIBED BY CHAGALL WITH A FULL-PAGE ORIGINAL DRAWING AND TWO ORIGINAL COLOR LITHOGRAPHS: JERUSALEM WINDOWS
CHAGALL, Marc. Vitraux pour Jerusalem. (Monte Carlo): André Sauret, (1962). Folio, original gray raw silk, original illustrated dust jacket. Housed in a custom clamshell box.
First French edition of Chagall’s Jerusalem Windows, with two original full-color lithographs especially prepared by Chagall for this edition, and with a bold presentation inscription on the fly leaves, signed and dated “Marc Chagall, I/XI 1962,” accompanied by a lovely full-page original drawing of an olive branch held above housetops, all in the year of publication.
“The light that emanates from the twelve stained glass windows bathes the Abbell Synagogue at the Hadassah University Medical Center in a special glow. The sun filters through the brilliant colors of the stained glass capturing their radiance. Even in the misty haze of a cloudy day, Chagall’s genius transforms time and space” (Hadassah Medical Organization). Illustrated in this grand limited edition are various drafts as well as the final versions of the 12 stained glass windows-one for each of the tribes of Israel. At the dedication, Chagall spoke of the joy he felt in bringing “my modest gift to the Jewish people, who have always dreamt of biblical love, of friendship and peace among all people… My hope is that I hereby extend my hand to seekers of culture, to poets and to artists among the neighboring people… All the time I was working I felt my father and my mother were looking over my shoulder, and behind them were Jews, millions of other vanished Jews of yesterday and a thousand years ago.” The creation of the Windows was a labor of love to Chagall and his assistant Charles Marq, both of whom worked on the project for two years. Text and Notes in French by Jean Leymarie. Issued the same year as the very similar English-language edition titled Jerusalem Windows. Cramer 49. Sorlier 78.
Book, inscription and original drawing fine, minor edge-wear to spine head of bright original dust jacket. A splendid inscribed copy with a large original drawing.