Original signed in plate lithographic poster printed by Mourlot, for a mixed exhibition at Musee Jacquemart in 1979.

Produced in 1978 for a group exhibition at the Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris, and printed at Atelier Mourlot under supervision of Charles Sorlier, Chagall’s long-standing master printer. Signed in the stone, it is from Chagall’s late graphic period, when memory and autobiography were central themes.

The image is explicitly self-referential. Chagall depicts himself seated at an easel, actively painting, while a goat dressed in clothing looks on. The goat is a recurring figure and should not be read as whimsical decoration: it derives from Eastern European folklore and Jewish symbolism, where it can represent vitality, instinct, sacrifice, or the witness to human action. Here, it functions as a silent observer to the act of creation, reinforcing painting as ritual rather than profession.

The title La Ruche et Montparnasse anchors the scene in lived history. La Ruche (literally, the beehive), was the artists’ residence/colony in Montparnasse where Chagall lived after arriving in Paris in 1910, was a crucible for émigré modernism, while Montparnasse itself symbolised the wider network of cafés, studios, and exchanges that shaped early 20th-century art.

Created late in life, this poster reads as a summation: the artist looking back at the origins of his identity, placing himself — quite literally — inside the story of modern art’s making.