BOLDLY INSCRIBED BY MARC CHAGALL

(CHAGALL, Marc) KORNFELD, Eberhard W. Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre gravé. Volume I: 1922-1966. Bern: Editions Kornfeld et Klipstein, 1971. Folio (10 by 12-1/2 inches), original tan cloth, original dust jacket. $3000.

First edition in French, with 123 plates (many in color) of Chagall's engravings, boldly inscribed across the title page to a friend and fellow Russian Jewish emigré, "Pour M. Liverant. Marc Chagall 1975."

This work includes images of Chagall's changing signature over the years and an introduction by Kornfeld. Volume I was all that was published. The German edition was published one year earlier; there was also a limited edition of 150 signed copies (100 in German, 50 in French) that also included a Chagall etching. Cramer 85. Inscribed to Joseph Liverant, a fellow Russian Jewish emigré and close friend of Chagall. Liverant and Chagall both fled Europe in World War II, Liverant to Canada and Chagall to the United States. After the war, both acquired residences in Provence, where shared social circles, similar ages, and a mutual love of Yiddish combined to forge a lasting bond of friendship between the two.

Fine condition.