House in Witebsk (Haus in Witebsk) from My Life (Mein Leben)

House in Witebsk (Haus in Witebsk) from My Life (Mein Leben) by Marc Chagall is an evocative example of graphic art created in 1922 and subsequently published in 1923. This print is an etching supplemented with drypoint, a technique that allows for both precise linear detail and a richer, blurred texture resulting from the copper plate’s burr. The work forms part of a seminal portfolio of twenty etchings, known collectively as Mein Leben (My Life), an Illustrated Book classification functioning as a visual autobiography of the artist's formative years.

The image focuses on the distinctive, slightly skewed architecture of Witebsk (Vitebsk), the Russian city of Chagall’s birth. Although created while the artist was situated within the French cultural sphere, the series reflects his enduring preoccupation with his homeland and the memories that defined his singular modernist vocabulary. Chagall uses the inherent expressiveness of the print medium to articulate a visual poetry, blending nostalgic recollection with the formal requirements of etching.

The precision offered by the etching needle combined with the atmospheric quality of the drypoint technique lends this piece a dreamlike yet immediate quality. It contrasts the intimate scale typical of prints with the grand themes of memory and displacement common throughout the artist’s oeuvre. This particular piece, dated 1922, published 1923, documents a crucial phase in Chagall's development as he synthesized his Russian-Jewish heritage with the avant-garde movements he encountered in Western Europe. The print is preserved as part of the esteemed collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). As a work of fine art prints, it demonstrates the mastery Chagall brought to the medium during his early years in French artistic circles.