D'APRÈS MARC CHAGALL LE CHANDELIER, 1962 Graphite pencil on plaster engraved with a gouge and worked with another tool Unsigned Graphite pencil on plaster engraved with a gouge and worked with another tool; unsigned 55,5 x 44 CM - 21 7/8 X 17 5/16 IN. The Marc Chagall Committee will not be issuing a certificate for this work. Any use of this matrix for the purpose of reproducing it, without the authorization of the beneficiaries of Marc Chagall's rights, will be illegal. NOTE This work is a plaster matrix used for stamping Marc Chagall's clay plate: The Candlestick, 1962. The original function of this plate is explained by Douglas Cooper when he describes the process of making a new group of dishes, executed in white biscuit under glaze, which the Madoura pottery had just delivered to Picasso: "Picasso took a large plaster moulded matrix, on the surface of which he first engraved a line drawing. Then, with the help of another instrument (gouge), he would dig deeper into a set of shapes. Sometimes he would also add a few roughly shaped forms to the surface. Once he felt he had finished working on the matrix, Picasso would send it back to the pottery where a small number of impressions would be made. In other words, this matrix served as an intermediate element of reproduction, just as the copper plate does for the engraver. "1 1 Paul Bourassa, "Rencontres avec la céramique", in. Picasso et la céramique, cat. exhibition, Musée national des Beaux-Arts du Québec, Gardiner Museum of Ceramic in Toronto and Musée Picasso d'Antibes, Paris: Hazan, 2004, p. 67.