The Tavern (Le Traktir), plate II (supplementary suite) from Les Âmes mortes

The Tavern (Le Traktir), plate II (supplementary suite) from Les Âmes mortes, created by Marc Chagall in 1923, is an etching produced as part of an ambitious illustrated book project. This striking black-and-white work belongs to a suite of illustrations commissioned for a French edition of Nikolai Gogol's classic satirical novel, Dead Souls.

The medium of etching, executed with dense, expressive lines, allows Chagall to emphasize the psychological depth and distorted realities of Gogol's narrative world. The plate likely depicts a scene within a provincial Russian inn, capturing the atmosphere of isolation and bureaucratic corruption central to the novel. Although Russian-born, Chagall was working within the innovative milieu of French art when he created these illustrations, a period spanning 1923-48. This era solidified his reputation as a key figure bridging modernism and narrative printmaking.

Chagall’s characteristic visual style—which blends Jewish folklore, early Cubist structures, and Surrealist elements—is powerfully adapted here to the monochromatic demands of the etching technique. Unlike his vividly colored canvases, this work relies on sharp contrasts and a reduction of form to evoke the characters and settings. The illustration, specifically The Tavern (Le Traktir), is recognized as a major achievement in the artist's graphic arts career, demonstrating his fluency in adapting classical literature into deeply personal visual commentary. The complete Dead Souls series, comprising numerous etchings, established a benchmark for 20th-century illustrated books. This particular piece is held in the esteemed collection of the Museum of Modern Art, highlighting its importance as both an artistic print and a significant literary collaboration.