Encounter with a Peasant (Rencontre d'un paysan), plate XXXVIIquater (supplementary suite) from Les Âmes mortes

Encounter with a Peasant (Rencontre d'un paysan), plate XXXVIIquater (supplementary suite) from Les Âmes mortes is a crucial work by Marc Chagall, executed in 1923 as part of his ambitious project illustrating Nikolai Gogol’s satirical 19th-century novel, Dead Souls. This piece is realized through the complex processes of etching and drypoint, techniques that define the graphic style of this renowned illustrated book series. Chagall’s precise command of the etching needle and the rich, velvety texture achieved through the drypoint burr allowed him to translate Gogol’s bleak, yet humorous, narrative of social corruption into intensely expressive visual forms.

Although Chagall was born in Russia, the production and publication of this substantial series firmly places the work within the French artistic culture of the 1920s and 1930s. This print project was commissioned by the renowned Parisian art dealer and publisher Ambroise Vollard, who sought to pair leading modernist figures with classic literary texts. The scope of this illustrated work occupied the artist during the extended period of 1923-48, reflecting a sustained focus on narrative printmaking in his oeuvre. This example showcases Chagall's signature fusion of expressionism and folk motifs, applying a modernist sensibility to the harsh realities of the Russian peasant class described by Gogol.

The composition of Encounter with a Peasant captures a moment of stark human interaction, utilizing sharp tonal contrasts to convey the underlying tension and emotional weight central to the literary source material. Chagall often distorted or abstracted his figures to underscore psychological states, a quality evident here in the raw, immediate portrayal of the subjects. As a defining example of the artist’s graphic mastery and contribution to 20th-century illustrated literature, this powerful print is held in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, serving as a vital reference point for scholars of both prints and modern French book illustration.