Verve: Marc Chagall - Bible / Dessins pour le Bible.

First edition. Two double issues of Verve extensively illustrated by Chagall.

Bible: 16 lithographs printed in colours and 105 monochrome illustrations.
Dessins pour la Bible: 24 lithographs (two in the text) and 96 monochrome illustrations.
Printed by les Maitres-Imprimeurs Draeger Frères (héliogravure) and Mourlot Frère (lithographs).
Texts by Jean Wahl, Meyer Shapiro and Gaston Bachelard.

The 'Bible' contains Chagall's first cycle of Bible illustrations, which had been specially commissioned by Ambroise Vollard, the great art dealer and publisher of artist books. In the second work, 'Dessins pour la Bible', Chagall additionally included scenes of the Old Testament's 'great dramas' drawn in 1958-59, among which one finds the story of the Garden of Eden, Cain and Abel, the flood, the golden calf, Jonah and the whale, David and Goliath etc. 'One of the very few major Bible illustrations of the 20th century. Chagall combines the majesty of the Jewish tradition with the wit of popular art. The work was first requested by Vollard in 1931 and completed for Tériade in 1956. The text is from the French Geneva translation of 1638.' The Artist & the Book: 1860-1960; Sorlier 75; Cramer 42.