Greeting Card for Association des Amis du Musée National Message Biblique Marc Chagall 1977

This greeting card was made by Marc Chagall, probably as a lithograph. Imagine him, pulling this image out of the stone. The stark black lines show two figures intertwined. One, looming large, perhaps an angel, protects the other, a bearded man. There’s something so tender in the way the angel leans into the man, a real sense of care. Chagall, with his roots in Jewish culture, often uses biblical themes to explore love and suffering. The sparse marks, like the simple shapes of the trees, feel primal, almost like they’ve been there forever. It’s like a dream, or a memory, where details blur but the feeling stays strong. This print echoes themes found in other artists, such as Gauguin’s exploration of spirituality and the figure. Artists are always in conversation with one another! Here we see how Chagall uses abstraction to express deep emotions. It is a reminder that painting, in all its forms, lets us feel and think in ways that words simply can’t capture.