How did Marc Chagall begin his career as a printmaker?

Marc Chagall began his career as a printmaker after learning the techniques of engraving during his time in Berlin.1

His professional path in this medium was solidified in 1923 after he returned to Paris. Through his friend, the poet Blaise Cendrars, Chagall met the art dealer and publisher Ambroise Vollard. Vollard commissioned him to create a series of etchings to illustrate a special edition of Nikolay Gogol’s novel Dead Souls. This project launched Chagall on his long and prolific career as a printmaker, leading to subsequent major commissions for illustrations of Jean de La Fontaine’s Fables and the Bible.1