Tchelitchew (1898-1957) was born in Moscow, studied at the Drawing School in Kiev in 1918, and after travelling widely abroad, settled in Paris in 1923. Three years later, breaking with abstract art, he contributed to the Neo-Romantic Exhibition, and in 1928 designed the sets and costumes for Diaghilev’s ballet Ode. He then became a Surrealist, and at the beginning of the Second World War moved to New York, where he met Tanguy, Ernst and Breton, producing work which, like Salvador Dali, recorded fantastic visions with great technical precision.

His design for the 1956 Mouton Rothschild label La Tache de Vin returns to the traditional theme of the Ram, expressing the exuberance of nature under the controlling hand of man.