The Tale of the Ebony Horse

The Tale of the Ebony Horse — Marc Chagall. 1948.

Medium: color lithograph. Dimensions: Image: 37.8 x 28.8 cm (14 7/8 x 11 5/16 in.); Sheet: 43.2 x 33.1 cm (17 x 13 1/16 in.).

Collection record: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland. Museum connection according to this source; current display unverified.

The Arabian Nights, also known as The Thousand and One Nights, tells the story of a king who kills his new brides the morning after their marriage to avoid infidelity. One of his wives, the clever Scheherazade, keeps the king distracted each night with interconnecting stories that stop at a cliffhanger, thus delaying her execution for another day. Though they were Marc Chagall’s first foray into color lithography, Four Tales won the Graphic Prize at the Venice Biennial in 1948. The fantastic elements from the stories, such as the ifrit (a type of demon), mermen, and flying horses, were particularly well suited for Chagall’s evocative imagery and expressive use of color.

Source: official collection record. Metadata selected and normalized by Artline from the source export, accessed 10 September 2026; no museum endorsement. Reproduction rights are separate.