Capturing the instance in which Abdullah comes across a magical and fantastic landscape, he is confronted by an explosion of life: an array of animals - fish, buffalo, dogs, and oxen - are pictured here against rolling green hills on a lovely summer's day. An excerpt from the corresponding text from The Arabian Nights is as follows:
Abdullah discovered before him and on his right and left mountains of water and solaced himself by gazing thereon and on the various sorts of fish. Some of them favoured buffaloes, others oxen and others dogs and yet others human beings…

On an invitation to New York from the Museum of Modern Art, Chagall had agreed to create this series of lithographs illustrating the Four Tales as a favor to his friend, Jacques Schiffrin whose firm, Pantheon Books, was publishing a series of works by French authors. The result was a series of volumes featuring these colored lithographs, including Plate 9.

Created in 1948, this work was part of a series of 12 lithographs that Chagall created to illustrate Four Tales from the Arabian Nights. Plate 9, containing at least 7 or 8 colors, was printed by Albert Carman, New York on wove paper and published by Pantheon Books, New York. It is hand signed by Marc Chagall (Vitebsk, 1887 - Saint-Paul, 1985) in pencil in the lower right margin and numbered from the edition of 90 in pencil in the lower left in addition to the handwritten pencil inscription, 'Pl. 9'.

Catalogue Raisonné & COA:
It is fully documented and referenced in the below catalogue raisonnés and texts (copies will be enclosed as added documentation with the invoices that will accompany the final sale of the work).

1. Chagall, Marc. Arabian Nights, Four Tales from a Thousand and One Nights, with introduction by Norbert Nobis, Prestel: Munich, 1988. Illustrated on pg. 111.
2. Cramer, Patrick. Marc Chagall, The Illustrated Books: Catalogue Raisonné, Geneva, 1995. Listed and illustrated as cat. no. 18 on pgs. 58-9.
3. Gauss, Ulrike, ed. Marc Chagall: The Lithographs, La Collection Sorlier, Stuttgart, 1960. Listed and illustrated as cat. no. 44 on pg. 66 and detailed on pg. 64.
4. Mourlot, Fernand. The Lithographs of Chagall, vol. I 1922-1957, Monté Carlo, 1960. Listed and illustrated as cat. no. 44 on pgs. 70-1 with details on pgs. 64-65.
5. Sorlier, Charles. Le Livre des Livres: Marc Chagall, the Illustrated Books, Berne, 1990. Detailed on pg. 176 and illustrated on pg. 179.
6. A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany this work.

About the Framing:

This work is framed to museum-grade, conservation standards, presented in a complementary moulding and finished with silk-wrapped mats and optical grade Plexiglas.