MARC CHAGALL - FIRST DAY COVER SIGNED - HFSID 112664

MARC CHAGALL. First Day Cover signed: "Marc/Chagall" in black crayon, 6¼x4. Israeli FDC honoring Chagall's Jerusalem Windows, Israeli stamp affixed, postmarked Jerusalem, March 26, 1973, FIRST DAY OF ISSUE. Postmark is in both English and Hebrew. The stamp, which has an imprinted description on the selvage, pictures Chagall's stained glass window for the tribe of Simeon. Russian-born French artist Marc Chagall (1887-1985), with the assistance of French master glassworker Charles Marq, produced 12 windows (1959-1961) to represent the 12 tribes of Israel for the Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center Synagogue. Chagall was first commissioned in June 1959 by the president and architect of the University Medical Center in Jerusalem. Since Israeli law prohibited the depiction of human form, Chagall interpreted his scenes through color, animals and traditional Hebrew symbols. Each window is more than 11 feet high and eight feet wide in its finished dimension. Chagall produced each window in five stages: first, a pen and ink sketch; second, a preparatory ink drawing; next, the first color sketch in ink and watercolor; fourth, a gouache (watercolor technique) collage model; and lastly, the final gouache and collage model. Ink slightly smudged at the "M" in Mark and the "ll" of Chagall and the flourish of signature. Creased at upper left blank corner. Slightly soiled at lower right blank corner, stray ink mark at upper margin. Fine condition. Framed to an overall size of 21½x20½.