Marc Chagall

(1887-1985)

'My art is an extravagant art, a flaming vermilion, a blue soul flooding over my paintings'

Marc Chagall (1887-1985)

Russian painter, was one of the great masters of the school of Paris and was also acclaimed as a forerunner of surrealism.

1917

Marc Chagall was born Moishe Shagal on July 7, 1887, in Vitebsk to a poor Jewish family. The years of his childhood, and his native village became the main themes of his art.

These first impressions

remained in his mind like primeval images and were changed into paintings.

The flying carriage

In 1906, Chagall left the Jewish elementary school he attended and began studying at Yehuda Pen's school of painting in Vitebsk.

In 1907 he moved to St. Petersburg, where he attended the school of the imperial Society for the Protection of the Arts and studied briefly with Leon Bakst.

yehuda

These were years of difficulty and poverty for Chagall. In the studio he had his first contact with the modern movement which was sweeping Paris.

His pictures of this early period are lyrical evocations of his childhood.

1911I and my village

In 1910 he moved to Paris and found a place in the famous "La Ruche".

He always stressed the importance of Paris for his development:

"In Paris, it seems to me, I have found everything, but above all, the art of craftsmanship. I owe all that I have achieved to Paris, to France, whose nature, men, the very air, were the true school of my life and art."

Paris

Robert and Sonia Delauney were important influences in Chagall's life and his art. A native Russian, Sonia made a point of including Chagall in many of her social meetings. Robert Delauney's use of Cubist technique and his lyrical sense of color was a strong influence on Chagall's assimilation of Cubist ideas.

1912self portrait with seven fingers

Very early in life he was encouraged by his mother and she managed to get him into a St Petersburg art school. Returning to Vitebsk, he became engaged to Bella Rosenfeld.

1910 Sabbath

Chagall returned to Vitebsk in 1914, where he was caught by the outbreak of the First World War. He married Bella there in 1915. He was appointed provincial Commissar for Fine Art in 1917 and became involved in ambitious projects for a local college.

The woman with the roses

1915 The birthday

Tragically Bella didn't live to see the end of the war, dying suddenly in 1944 just before peace was declared. The death of Bella stopped Chagall's creativity for many months.

It was not until he met Virginia Haggard that he was able to rise out of his depression. His relationship with Virginia and more dramatic commissions helped him to get back into life.

Chagall with Bella

promenade

Travels encouraged New Works

A journey to Palestine and Syria in 1931 gave Chagall firsthand knowledge of the land, which he depicted in his illustrations for the Bible.

en-route

joie

landleben

In 1933 Goebbels ordered some of Chagall's work to be burnt. Chagall's concern for the fate of humanity is reflected in works of this period such as Solitude 1933 which conveys an overwhelming atmosphere of depression with the huddled figure of a pious Jew seemingly depressed, and desire for faraway Israel.

1933 Solitude

He began working in ceramics in 1950 and made his first sculptures the following year. He married again in 1952 to Valentina Brodsky ("Vava").

Adam and Eve the dream

1954-1976His famous "Paris" series, a series of

fantastic scenes set against the

background of views of the city, was

created between 1953 and 1956.

He was the greatest interpreter of the Bible since Rembrandt, and he used biblical themes in paintings, graphic works, and stained glass (12 windows for the medical center in Jerusalem, 1961).

asherdanreuven

Chagall started a new series of large paintings, the "Biblical Message," in 1963.

Song of songs III

Abraham and the three angels

Jacob’s dream

Honored for His Work

Stained-glass was also the medium he used when he created The America Windows 1977 (Chicago Institute of Art) to celebrate the US birthday.

These windows are an

expression of his gratitude to the United States where he'd found safe haven during World War 2.

yis

Chagall continued to create great artworks throughout the later years of his life. In the 1960s and 1970s, his stained glass art appeared in such buildings as the United Nations.

yoseflevi

Chagall occupied an unique place in world art. Even though at times he was slightly influenced by the modern developments in arts (as when he discovered Cubism, for example), throughout his long life he was an independent artist, often criticized for his lack of "realism" or for his lack of desire to explore non-objective art.

The Cattle Dealer

The sources of his idea are found in his childhood,

in the life of countryside of Vitebsk and its Jewish

community, the Scriptures, more surprisingly,

Russian folk art and icon painting.

In 1973, a museum of his works alone was opened in Nice, France. In 1977, the Louvre exhibited 62 of his paintings, an extremely rare event for a living artist.

Chagall

Chagall died at the age of 97 in 1985.

Group 7

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