21 - [Marc CHAGALL]. The Seven Deadly Sins.

[Marc CHAGALL]. The Seven Deadly Sins. […] Etchings by Marc Chagall. Paris, Simon Kra, 1926. Quarto, paperback, cover printed in green and black with embossing, gray paper slipcase. First edition of this collection of texts on the seven deadly sins. Jean Giraudoux wrote on Pride, Paul Morand on Avarice, Pierre Mac Orlan on Lust, André Salmon on Envy, Max Jacob on Gluttony, Jacques de Lacretelle on Wrath, and, finally, Joseph Kessel on Sloth. Limited edition of 300 copies: one of 240 on vellum paper (no. 178). The illustrations include 15 original etchings by Marc Chagall, not included in the text. This is one of the first books illustrated by the Russian-born painter, whose earliest engravings had appeared in Berlin three years earlier, in 1923, in an album titled *Mein Leben*. After arriving in Paris, he then set to work on Gogol’s *Dead Souls*, commissioned by Ambroise Vollard. The print run was completed in 1927, but the book was not ultimately published until 1948! In the meantime, other books were published, notably *The Seven Deadly Sins*: “This book is not the first one Chagall illustrated—there were three in Russia before 1920, followed by *Rose des vents*, the first illustrated book published in France by Sans Pareil—but all his books up to that point were illustrated with reproduced drawings. *The Seven Deadly Sins* is therefore indeed his first book illustrated with original engravings, preceding by a few days or weeks *Maternité*, a story by Marcel Arland, illustrated with five engravings” (Antoine Coron). (Coron, *From Goya to Max Ernst: Illustrated Books from the R.M. Library*, 2018, p. 214.- Rauch, *Les Peintres et le Livre*, no. 145.—Skira, *Anthology of Books Illustrated by Painters and Sculptors of the School of Paris*, no. 45.)