Greeting Card (Man Holding a Bouquet)
1979
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
5-color lithograph on wove paper
Dimensions
image: 14 x 10.9 cm (5 1/2 x 4 5/16 in.) sheet: 14 x 21.8 cm (5 1/2 x 8 9/16 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Gerhard E. Pinkus
Accession Number
1997.95.22
Art Historical Context
Marc Chagall’s *Greeting Card (Man Holding a Bouquet)* captures the artist’s signature blend of fantasy and tenderness in a compact, intimate format. Created in 1979 when Chagall was in his early nineties, the lithograph depicts a solitary figure offering flowers, a motif that echoes the Russian-French master’s lifelong celebration of love, memory, and everyday wonder. Chagall’s dreamlike figures often seem to float between reality and reverie, drawing on his Jewish heritage and personal experiences of displacement and joy. As a five-color lithograph printed on wove paper, the work showcases ...
About the Artist
Marc Chagall
Marc Chagall, born Moishe Shagal on July 7, 1887, in Liozna near Vitebsk in the Russian Empire (now Belarus), grew up as the eldest of nine children in a devout Jewish family confined to the Pale of Settlement. His father worked as a herring merchant's porter, while his mother sold groceries from home, instilling in young Chagall a deep connection to Hasidic Judaism and Eastern European folklore a...