¤ MARC CHAGALL (1887-1985) SANS TITRE (LE CHANDELIER), 1962 Graphite pencil on plaster engraved with a gouge and worked with a mechanical milling cutter Signed lower left Graphite pencil on plaster engraved with a gouge and worked with a mechanical milling cutter; signed lower left 55,5 x 44 CM - 21 7/8 X 17 5/16 IN. The Marc Chagall Committee will not issue a certificate for this work. Any use of this matrix for reproduction purposes without the authorization of Marc Chagall's beneficiaries will be illegal. NOTE This work is a plaster matrix used for stamping Marc Chagall's clay plaque: Untitled (The Candlestick), 1962. "Painter, draughtsman, engraver, scenographer, in the image of those universal artists of the Renaissance whose race seemed to be extinct, Chagall became a ceramicist. At first glance, nothing could be more spontaneously foreign to the artist's fundamental concerns than this technique - which is also a craft - whose specificity may seem constrained, and this medium, clay, whose heaviness seems to alienate any formal freedom. And yet, between 1949, the date of the first plate, and 1972, the date of the last composition - a self-portrait made in Saint-Paul in Michel Muraour's studio - more than 220 pieces were executed. The scope of the work is all the more indisputable in that it remains largely unpublished, or at least not yet well known. [...] Chagall's interest in ceramic murals began in 1950, and stemmed from the painter's reflection on the problems of integrating the image into architecture: how to enlarge the image to the size of the wall, how to ensure its visual unity. The first panels were painted in Suzanne and Georges Ramié's Madoura studio in Vallauris. [...] Between 1952 and 1962, Chagall models and decorates 62 dishes and plates, 10 plaques, 16 wall ceramics, 51 vases." Sylvie Forestier, "Chagall et la céramique", in Vallauris, Céramiques de peintres et de sculpteurs, cat. expo., Musée d'art moderne et de céramique de Vallauris, 2 June-10 September 1995, Éditions de la Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Paris: 1995, pp. 50-51 and p. 54.