1974 Marc Chagall Collotype "La Tour Eiffel Verte" (The Green Eiffel Verte)

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Original collotype print after the earlier Marc Chagall lithograph, from the limited edition portfolio "Twenty Four Masterpieces of Graphic Art". … Read more Original collotype print after the earlier Marc Chagall lithograph, from the limited edition portfolio "Twenty Four Masterpieces of Graphic Art". Printed and published by Triton Press, Inc., New York in 1974. Sheet size: 17 x 14 inches; print size: 11-3/4 x 9 inches, on Brandywine Cover paper. Shown on a black background. Mint condition new old stock from our immaculate copy of "Twenty Four Masterpieces of Graphic Art".

Collotype is a printing process invented in the mid-19th century famous for producing extremely fine detail and rich tonal gradation, using photograph negatives to create printing plates. Widely used for art books, postcards, and fine art reproductions in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, today collotype is commercially uncommon, but still practiced by a few master printers. Collotype prints are admired by photographers, printmakers, and collectors for its unmatched subtlety.

Marc Chagall was able to bring to the making of this lithograph a knowledge of the craft acquired over a period of almost 40 years. In his early drypoints and later in his etchings for The Fables of La Fontaine and The Bible, he was not permitted the direct, spontaneous use of color. Most of his prints were inspired by more elaborate paintings which were already completed. From
these he "borrowed" a passage or detail and with daring simplifications and economies produced a new picture. Color lithographs such as the original afforded him freer rein than the copper plate etchings. See less