Marc Chagall

Marc Chagall (July 7, 1887 – March 28, 1985) was a Jewish Belarusian painter. Among the celebrated painters of the 20th century, he is often associated with the Surrealist movement.

Biography

Born Moishe Zakharovich Shagalov (Moishe Segal) in Vitebsk, Belarus (then in the Russian Empire), Chagall was the eldest of eight children in the close-knit Jewish family formed by his father, a herring merchant and his mother, Feiga-Ita. This period of his life, described as happy though impoverished, appears in references throughout Chagall's work.

Related Topics:
Vitebsk - Belarus - Russian Empire - Jewish - Herring - Merchant

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Beginning to study painting in 1906 under famed local artist Yehuda Pen, Chagall moved to St. Petersburg only a few months later in 1907. There he joined the school of the Society of Art Supporters and studied under Nikolai Roerich, encountering artists of every school and style. In 1908-1910 he studied under Leon Bakst at Zvyagintseva School.

Related Topics:
1906 - Yehuda Pen - St. Petersburg - 1907 - Nikolai Roerich - 1908 - 1910 - Leon Bakst

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This period was difficult for Chagall — Jewish residents at the time could only live in St. Petersburg with a permit, and he was jailed for a brief time. Chagall remained in St. Petersburg until 1910, and regularly visited home village where in 1909 he met his future wife, Bella Rosenfeld.

Related Topics:
1910 - 1909 - Bella Rosenfeld

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After becoming known as an artist, he left St. Petersburg to settle in Paris in order to be near the art community of the Montparnasse district, where he becomes a friend of Guillaume Apollinaire, Robert Delaunay, and Fernand Léger. In 1914, he returned to Vitebsk and a year later married his fiancé, Bella. World War I erupted while Chagall was in Russia. In 1916, the Chagalls had a daughter, Ida.

Related Topics:
Paris - Montparnasse - Guillaume Apollinaire - Robert Delaunay - Fernand Léger - 1914 - World War I

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Chagall became an active participant in the Russian Revolution. The Soviet Ministry of Culture made him a Commissar of Art for the Vitebsk region, where he founded an art school. He did not fare well politically under the Soviet system. He and his wife moved to Moscow in 1920 and back to Paris in 1923.

Related Topics:
Russian Revolution - Soviet - Art school - Moscow - 1920 - 1923

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With the of France during World War II, and the deportation of Jews and the Holocaust, the Chagalls fled Paris. He hid at Villa Air-Bel in Marseille and American journalist, Varian Fry assisted his escape from France through Spain and Portugal. In 1941, the Chagalls settled in United States of America.

Related Topics:
France - World War II - Jews - The Holocaust - Villa Air-Bel - Marseille - American - Journalist - Varian Fry - Spain - Portugal - United States of America

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On September 2, 1944, his beloved Bella, the constant subject of his paintings and companion of his life, died from an illness. Two years later in 1946 he returned to Europe. By 1949 he was working in Provence, France. During these intense years, he rediscovered the vital energy of color, free and vibrant. His works of this period are dedicated to themes inspired by love and the joy of life, with curved, sinuous figures. He also began to work in sculpture, ceramics, and stained glass.

Related Topics:
Provence - France

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Chagall remarried in 1952 to Valentina Brodsky. He traveled several times to Greece, and in 1957 visited Israel, where in 1960 he created stained glass windows for the synagogue of the Hadassah University Clinic in Jerusalem and in 1966, wall art for the new parliament being constructed in that city.

Related Topics:
Greece - Israel - Stained glass - Synagogue - Jerusalem - 1966 - Parliament

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In 1973, the Musée National Message Biblique Marc Chagall (Chagall Museum) opens in Nice, France.

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The museum in Vitebsk, which bears his name, was founded in 1997 in the building where his family lived on 29 Pokrovskaia street — though until his death, years before the fall of the Soviet Bloc, he was persona non grata in his homeland. The museum only has copies of his work.

Related Topics:
Vitebsk - 1997 - Soviet Bloc - Persona non grata

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In 2005, musician Tori Amos recorded and released the composition "Garlands," with lyrics inspired by a series of Chagall lithographs.

Related Topics:
2005 - Tori Amos

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He died at the age of 97 in Saint-Paul de Vence, France.

Related Topics:
Saint-Paul de Vence - France

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