Original Marc Chagall Poster "Le ciel Bleu" 1964 - Mourlot

This is an original colour lithographic poster created in 1964 by Marc Chagall for his exhibition at the Galerie Maeght in Paris — one of the most celebrated shows of his late career, held in June and July of 1964 at the gallery that had represented him since 1950. What makes this poster exceptional beyond its beauty is its technique: the image, Le Ciel Bleu, is not a reproduction of an existing painting but an original lithograph — a composition conceived specifically for this poster by Chagall, engraved on stone by his most trusted master printer, Charles Sorlier, under the artist's direct supervision, and published by Éditions Maeght in an unnumbered edition of 1,500. It is catalogued as Sorlier n°47 and Chagall Lithographe III n°409 — one of the most thoroughly documented posters in Chagall's graphic oeuvre.

Marc Chagall (1887–1985), born Moishe Segal in Vitebsk, Belarus, and naturalised French in 1937, is one of the defining figures of 20th-century art — a painter, printmaker, stained glass artist and stage designer whose work defies every movement that tried to claim him. By 1964, he was at the absolute zenith of his international recognition: the Opéra de Paris ceiling, which he had completed that same year, had made his name known to an audience far beyond the art world. The Galerie Maeght exhibition came at this moment of peak visibility — and Le Ciel Bleu, with its luminous Chagallian dreamscape of lovers, animals and celestial light, captures his vision at its most characteristic and most radiant.

Charles Sorlier, who engraved this poster at Mourlot, was Chagall's most devoted collaborator in printmaking — the craftsman who translated his colours into lithographic ink with a fidelity the artist trusted absolutely, and whose definitive catalogue of Chagall's posters remains the authoritative reference for the field. The partnership between Chagall, Sorlier and Mourlot produced some of the finest printed works of the century, and this 1964 poster is among their most luminous achievements.

The poster is in good condition, see pictures.

A radiant collector's piece — an original lithograph by Chagall, engraved by Sorlier, published by Maeght, in the year Paris gave him the Opéra ceiling.