Marc Chagall 1887-1985 Russian-French artist Dear Year 5, I am very excited to introduce you to the work of one of my favourite artists. Chagall was born in Belarus (then part of Russia) but travelled widely and lived in France, USA and in Israel. His Jewish traditions were very important to him and he included many features in his work. His father was a herring merchant so there are many fish (some of them flying!) ‘Introduction to the Jewish Theatre’ 1920 One of the reasons I enjoy looking at his work is that he includes some very unusual images in them - for example, a goat playing the violin. Goats do not normally play the violin so why do you suppose he included them so often in his work?
Transcript
Marc Chagall 1887-1985 Russian-French artist
Dear Year 5,
I am very excited to introduce you to the work of one of my favourite artists. Chagall was born in Belarus (then part of Russia) but travelled widely and lived in France, USA and in Israel. His Jewish traditions were very important to him and he included many features in his work. His father was a herring merchant so there are many fish (some of them flying!)
‘Introduction to the Jewish Theatre’ 1920
One of the reasons I enjoy looking at his work is that he includes some very unusual images in them - for example, a goat playing the violin. Goats do not normally play the violin so why do you suppose he included them so often in his work?
This painting is called ‘La Mariée’ which means ‘The Bride’ in French. He painted it in 1950. Flowers also appear frequently in his work - for example in this painting called ‘Bouquet près de la Fenêtre’ (‘Bouquet near the window’) from 1958.
In 1963 Chagall was asked to design the paintings for the ceiling of the Paris Opera.
The Lincoln Centre in New York City displays some of Chagall's huge mosaic murals in the lobby of the new Metropolitan Opera House which opened in 1966. Unfortunately they were installed the wrong way around!
The United Nations Headquarters, also located in New York has a stained glass wall of his work.
There are also examples of his stained glass windows much closer to us, in Tudeley, Kent
Chagall lived for 20 years in a beautiful small hill-top village in the south of France called Saint Paul de Vence. This painting is called ‘The Lovers of Saint Pail de Vence.’
Saint Paul de Vence is also famous because of The Rosary Chapel which was designed and decorated by the artist I would like to talk about next, Henri Matisse.
This has been a whistle-stop tour of Chagall’s work but I hope that it has given you an idea of what inspired him and the colours and images he used. For me the shade of blue that he uses is incredible. And when the sun shines through one of his stained glass windows it is an amazing sight.
