Sale 2532 - 19th & 20th Century Prints & Drawings, March 5, 2020

501  MARC CHAGALL Le Cirque ambulant . Color lithograph, 1969. 360x530 mm; 14 1 / 4 x21 inches, full margins. Signed and numbered 39/50 in pencil, lower margin. A very good impression with strong colors. The circus became one of Chagall’s (1887- 1985) favorite subjects during his early years in Paris, and remained so throughout his career. The prominent Parisian publisher and art dealer, Ambroise Vollard, who had commissioned some of Chagall’s illustrated artist’s books during the 1930s including the Bible (see lots 485-491), urged the artist to pursue the circus theme. Chagall produced some of his earliest circus designs in Paris while enjoying the spectacle of the Cirque d’Hiver from Vollard’s reserved box seats. He joined a long and distinguished line of Impres­ sionist and modern painters who featured the circus in their work, including Degas, Seurat, Toulouse-Lautrec, Picasso, Rouault, van Dongen and Léger. Mourlot 583. [8,000/12,000] 501 500