Lithograph designed by Russian-French painter Marc Chagall describing the city of Vence, a French commune in the Alps, as a city of arts and flowers. The lithograph was designed for the city's 1954 Easter festival. At the bottom of the lithograph it states that the drawing printed above, by the master Marc Chagall, will be sold at auction on Monday.

In 1959, lithographer Fernand Mourlot organized an exhibition of all the lithographs artists had created at his shop, Mourlot Studios. His shop, later renamed Mourlot Editions, had become one of the largest print studios in Europe by the mid 20th Century, transformed from the simple wallpaper shop it started out as to a respected studio hired by French and foreign museums to produce posters for their own exhibitions. As his studio grew, so did Mourlot's ambitions, and he soon began inviting some of the best artists of the time to produce lithographs at his shop. Many of the era's most famous modern artists began discovering the art of lithography under Mourlot's direction. Now armed with printing skills, these artists went on to produce posters for their exhibitions, taking charge of their own advertisement campaigns. By reintroducing lithography to the world as a fine artform, one that offered all kinds of experimental possibilities, Mourlot truly earned his title as the father of modern lithography.

Artist: Marc Chagall

Medium: Lithograph

AIP-Portfolio#18