June 24 (July 6) 1887 (Vitebsk) - March 28, 1985 (France, Alpes-Maritimes, Saint-Paul-de-Vence)

Artist, painter, graphic artist, theater designer, illustrator, master of monumental and applied arts

One of the leaders of the world avant-garde of the 20th century, who at the same time followed an original path, he managed to organically combine the ancient traditions of Jewish culture with cutting-edge innovation.

Chagall was born into the family of a clerk and was the eldest child of nine children. He received a traditional religious education at home (Hebrew, reading the Torah and Talmud), studied for several years in a cheder (primary Jewish school), and then in a regular school. The artist's talent manifested itself in his early youth. In the center of Chagall’s artistic world, initially autobiographical and lyrically confessional, is family, home, beloved Vitebsk. This world is imbued with the spirit of national religious tradition, the feeling of the inseparability of life and being, making images home and the entire universe interchangeable.

In 1906, Chagall studied at the Vitebsk art school of I. M. Pan, but not for long, and in 1907 he went to St. Petersburg, to the school of the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts (1907–1908), then studied in the private studio of S. M. Seidenberg (1908) and school E. N. Zvantseva, where M. V. Dobuzhinsky and L. S. Bakst became his mentors.

Chagall begins his artistic biography with the painting “Dead Man (Death)” (1908, now this work is kept in the National Museum of Modern Art in Paris). In 1909 he painted “Portrait of my Bride with Black Gloves” (Kunstmuseum, Basel, Switzerland), “Family (Holy Family)” (National Museum of Modern Art, Paris). All these paintings were created under the influence of the classical tradition and symbolism, but the artist’s work is already full of originality and develops in line with neo-primitivist stylistics. With his first works, Chagall was exhibited for the first time at a school exhibition in the premises of the Apollo magazine in the spring of 1910.

Having decided that his apprenticeship was over, in August 1910 the artist left for Paris, where he settled in the artistic colony “Beehive”. During the first Parisian period, he became close to the poets and writers G. Apollinaire, B. Cendrars, M. Jacob, A. Salmon and others. He begins to create in the spirit of “supernaturalism” (“surnaturalism” is the term Apollinaire uses in relation to Chagall’s art). According to contemporaries, what makes the artist an expressionist and surrealist is a certain “dreamlike” essence of his works, coupled with a deep “human dimension”.

Despite his turbulent Parisian life, Chagall persistently calls himself a “Russian artist,” emphasizing his ancestral commonality with the Russian tradition. Chagall's innovative techniques of Cubism and Orphism - geometrized deformation and cutting of volumes, rhythmic organization, conventional color - are aimed at creating a tense emotional atmosphere. Life on his canvases is illuminated by eternally living myths that spiritualize the cycle of existence - birth, wedding, death.

In 1912, Chagall exhibited for the first time at the Autumn Salon; sends his works to the Moscow exhibitions “World of Art”, “Donkey’s Tail”, “Target”. The central works of the first Parisian period are such paintings as “Me and My Village” (1911. Museum of Modern Art, New York), “Russia, Donkeys and Others” (1911–1912. National Museum of Modern Art, Paris), “Self-Portrait with seven fingers" (1912. Amsterdam, Netherlands), "Calvary" (1912. Museum of Modern Art, New York), "Motherhood. Pregnant Woman”, “Paris from the Window” (both 1913), and others. In these paintings, the artist reveals himself as a dreamer, erasing all boundaries between the visible and the imaginary, external and internal. Hence the stunning expression of color and form, the fantastic metamorphoses of the objective world.

At the same time, the paintings “Snuff” (1912. Private collection, Germany) and “Praying Jew” (1912-1913. National Museum, Jerusalem, Israel) made Chagall one of the artistic leaders of the revival Jewish culture.

And finally, in June 1914, his first personal exhibition opened in Berlin, which included almost all the paintings and drawings created in Paris. They found a great response among young German painters, giving a direct impetus to the expressionist movement that arose in Germany after the war.

In the summer of 1914, Chagall returned to Vitebsk, where he was found by the First World War. Here, in 1914–1915, the artist created a series of “documents” of more than seventy works, dedicated not only to the war, but also written on the basis of impressions from nature (portraits, landscapes, genre scenes): “View from the window. Vitebsk”, “Hairdresser”, “House in the town of Liozno”. In them he achieves a synthesis of purely poetic techniques and an accurate depiction of reality.

In 1915, Chagall married Bella Rosenfeld, and over time, the theme of passionate love came to the fore in his work: “Over the City” (1914–1918, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow), “Double Portrait with a Glass of Wine” (1917), “Day” birth" (1915-1923) and the paintings of the "lovers" cycle: "Blue Lovers" (1914), "Green Lovers" (1914-1915), "Pink Lovers" (1916). In the pre-revolutionary Vitebsk years, the artist created epically monumental typical portraits (“Newspaper Seller”, “Green Jew”, “Praying Jew”, “Red Jew”); genre, portrait, landscape compositions: “Mirror” (1915, Russian Museum), “Portrait of Bella in a White Collar” (1917, National Museum of Modern Art, Paris), etc. Things transformed by Chagall’s brush acquire human habits and characteristic faces - “Window to the Garden” (c. 1917), “Interior with Flowers” ​​(1918) - and sometimes grow to spatio-temporal symbols on a cosmic scale (“Clock”, 1914).

After the revolution, Chagall became the commissar of arts of the provincial department of public education in Vitebsk and decorated the city for the revolutionary holidays. But constant ideological disputes with the local leadership force him to move to Moscow. Here he tries himself as a theater artist, and for some time teaches drawing in a colony of street children near Moscow. In 1920–1922 he took the first significant step towards monumental art: he painted a number of large wall panels for the Jewish Chamber Theater, where in 1921 his personal exhibition took place, and in 1922 - jointly with N. I. Altman and D. P. Shterenberg.

Having left for Berlin in 1922, Chagall settled in France in 1923. Since then he has lived constantly in Paris or in the south of the country, which he leaves for several years only with the outbreak of war. The artist spends 1941–1947 in New York. He travels to different countries in Europe and the Mediterranean, and visits Israel more than once.

Over time, Chagall's painting style becomes easier and more relaxed. Not only the main characters, but also all the elements of the image soar upward, forming compositions of color visions.

In 1930–1931, Chagall's collaboration with the publisher A. Vollard began. On his order, the artist completed illustrations for the Bible (over 105), which predetermined the main theme of his later work - the biblical one. In 1955, work began on the so-called “Chagall Bible” - a huge cycle of paintings, drawings, sketches that reveal the world of the ancestors of the Jewish people in a surprisingly emotional and bright, naively wise form. Commissioned by the same Vollard, Chagall performs in the technique black and white drawing Island-like illustrations for “Dead Souls” by N.V. Gogol and “Fables” by J. de La Fontaine.

In 1933, a grandiose exhibition of Chagall's works was held in Basel (Switzerland), which cemented his fame in Europe. In the same year, in Mannheim, on the orders of Goebbels, the master’s works were publicly burned. The persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany and the premonition of an approaching catastrophe paint Chagall’s canvases of the pre-war years in apocalyptic tones: one of the leading themes of his art is the crucifixion: “White Crucifix” (1938. Art Institute of Chicago, USA), “Crucified Artist” (1938–1940) ), "Martyr" (1940), "Yellow Christ" (1941).

In 1942, Chagall created costumes and scenery for the ballet “Aleko” to the music of P. I. Tchaikovsky, staged by Leonid Myasin, and three years later, in 1945, he created costumes, curtain and scenery sketches for I. F. Stravinsky’s ballet “The Firebird” "

A typical work of Chagall's New York period - the period of World War II - is his painting "Feathers and Flowers" (1943). In 1944, the artist’s wife died - and from then on, her nostalgic image often appears in Chagall’s works: “Around Her” (1945), “Wedding Candles” (1945), “Nocturne” (1947).

In 1952, a second youth began for the sixty-five-year-old artist, who was grieving the loss of Bella. Marriage to Valentina (Vava) Brodskaya and a happy family life could not but give impetus to the creation of new works, also inspired by a trip to the Mediterranean. Chagall began to execute extensive cycles of color lithographs, easel and book works - of which, in 1960–1962, illustrations for Long’s bucolic novel “Daphnis and Chloe” became most famous.

In the last stage of his life, Chagall worked more and more in monumental forms of art, engaged in mosaics, ceramics, tapestries, and sculpture. In the early 1960s, he created mosaics and a tapestry for the parliament building in Jerusalem, commissioned by the Israeli government. During the 1960s - 1970s he made numerous stained glass windows for antique Catholic churches, Lutheran churches, synagogues, public buildings Europe, America, Israel. This is a ceramic panel, and stained glass windows of the chapel in Assi (Savoy), and stained glass windows of the cathedral in Metz, and in the synagogue Faculty of Medicine Hebrew University near Jerusalem, and in the Fraumünster church in Zurich, and in the cathedrals of Reims, Mainz (St. Stephen) and many others. These works, coupled with Chagall's secular decorative compositions - the ceiling paintings of the Paris Opera (1964) and the Metropolitan Opera Theater in New York (1965), the Four Seasons mosaic on the National Bank building in Chicago (1972) - radically update the language modern monumental art, enriching it with powerful colorful lyricism.

In 1973, Chagall visited Moscow and Leningrad in connection with an exhibition of his works at the Tretyakov Gallery. In July of the same year, a museum of the artist’s works, “Biblical Message,” was opened in Nice in a building designed by Chagall. The French government gave this unique Chagall “temple” the status of a national museum.

In 1977, the artist was awarded the highest award in France - Big cross Legion of Honor. In October 1977 - January 1978, the Louvre, in derogation from the rules prohibiting honoring living artists, organized an exhibition on the occasion of Chagall's 90th anniversary.

A detailed biography of Marc Chagall written by his granddaughter Meret Meyer can be found.

If we ask you to name one painting by Marc Chagall, we guarantee that you will name the painting “Above the City.” Have you seen how the artist’s later paintings differ from his early works? Did you know who he drew in all his female images and when he began to foresee the danger to the lives of Jews? KYKY together with the Bulbash® brand, which produces a New Year calendar dedicated to the Belarusian fine arts, decided to study ten works by Chagall to remember those worth being proud of. Well, so that there is something to show off in small talk in the company of aesthetes.

"Old Lady with a Ball", 1906

In 1906, the year this picture was painted, Marc Chagall studied fine art at the art school of the Vitebsk painter Yudel Pan, and then moved to St. Petersburg.

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In his book “My Life,” Chagall describes this period as follows: “Having grabbed twenty-seven rubles - the only money in my entire life that my father gave me for an art education - I, a ruddy and curly-haired youth, set off for St. Petersburg with a friend. It's decided! Tears and pride choked me when I picked up the money from the floor - my father threw it under the table. He crawled and picked up. To my father’s questions, I stammered and answered that I wanted to go to art school... I don’t remember exactly what face he made and what he said. Most likely, at first he said nothing, then, as usual, he heated up the samovar, poured himself some tea, and only then, with his mouth full, said: “Well, go if you want.” But remember: I don't have any more money. You know. That's all I can scrape together. I won't send anything. You can't count on it."

In St. Petersburg, Chagall studied at the Drawing School of the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, headed by Nicholas Roerich. By the way, he was accepted into the school with such a tender name without an exam immediately into the third year. And “The Old Lady with a Ball” is a painting by Chagall, very characteristic of the described period of the artist’s life. Pure expressionism, in which expression prevails over image.

"Model", 1910

When Chagall wrote "Model", he was already living in Paris. During this period of his life, he became acquainted with new artistic directions: cubism, fauvism and expressionism. And, by the way, only in France did he begin to call himself Mark, and not Moses, as was customary from birth.

The painting shows a girl painting a picture. Despite the fact that the artist is dressed in Parisian fashion, on the wall you can see a carpet with a characteristic Slavic ornament - a kind of tribute to her homeland. We will not go into finding out whose artist he is, but we will hint that Wikipedia considers him “a Russian and French artist of Jewish origin, born in the Vitebsk province.”

And although the lady on the canvas is calm, the color scheme of the painting is alarming. It is known that Chagall associated red shades with anxiety: as a child in Vitebsk, the little artist witnessed a fire. Then the future creator barely escaped. It seems that in the painting Chagall embodied all his anxiety and anxiety associated with the move that had just happened from St. Petersburg to Paris.

"The Violinist", 1912-1913

In the Jewish way of life, the violinist has always been important: no birth, no funeral, no wedding could take place without a musician. So the violinist became a symbol of all human life. This picture shows almost all the seasons: in the foreground is yellow autumn, turning into spring. The background is winter.

And the violinist also seems to consist of different areas that determine his belonging to a particular nation. In general, the whole picture is oversaturated with color, conveying the artist’s energy. Do you know why the violinist plays on the roof? Chagall himself said right and left that this was not an artistic device: supposedly, he had an uncle who, when he drank compote, climbed onto the roof so that no one could disturb him. All that remains is to take the artist’s word for it.

"Blue Lovers", 1914

Marc Chagall's famous series - "Blue Lovers", "Pink Lovers", "Grey Lovers", "Green Lovers" - was dedicated to his beloved woman - the daughter of a successful jeweler Bella Rosenfeld. These paintings were painted during the period of their marriage, although even after Bella’s death, Chagall continued to include her in almost all of his female images. No wonder - Rosenfeld waited for Chagall for four years while he was in Paris. After which Chagall returned to Vitebsk to take Bella to France.

The painting “Blue Lovers” is clearly phantasmagorical. Space and objects are distorted, as if in a dream. For the artist, blue is the embodiment of the Mother of God, the Kingdom of Heaven. It was this color that Chagall used to convey the feeling of love, happiness and tenderness.

"Gate of the Jewish Cemetery", 1916

The world of the picture is spiritual and directed towards the sky, at the same time collapsing and chaotic. Take a closer look: it shows a monumental old gate, open to new inhabitants. The gaze of the beholder follows the lunar path to the graves, which stand in the very center of the canvas.

Abstract color planes, contrasts, dynamics of moonlight and the night sky give the painting, as researchers of Chagall’s works note, the features of sacred painting. In fact, the most important thing to understand is that already in 1916 Chagall foresaw a global tragedy.

“Above the City”, 1914-1918

Well, you know this picture for sure. Of course, it’s not difficult to guess that the artist and his wife Bella are depicted here. And they fly over Vitebsk - this is also understandable.

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Chagall strives to show a person the transience of time, and how much he wastes it. The artist does not detail the objects in the painting; this is only a world of memories and dreams. There are no laws of physics, no logic, only soaring souls in their romantic world. Chagall, by the way, painted not only lovers flying - for him, flying was not a strange pastime for a person at all, and could arise from different emotions of mental states.

We also urgently ask you to notice a little man on the left under the fence who is relieving himself - here it is, an understanding of Chagall’s romance. The world is indivisible, and everyday irony coexists with love lyrics. Everything is like in life.

"Walk", 1918

Again a man and a woman. Apart from them holding hands, there is nothing important in the world at this moment. These two are, again, real people - Mark himself and his wife Bella. He is standing on the ground. She is in heaven. And at the same time, together, holding hands, they connect the earthly world with the world of dreams.

These two paintings - "Above the City" and "Walk" - which are most often associated with Chagall's work, belong to the time period between 1914 and 1918. One can note the obvious portrait resemblance of the figures to Chagall and Rosenfeld himself, the poeticization of the landscapes of Vitebsk. And “Walk” became part of a triptych. The same series included the paintings “Double Portrait” and “Above the City”. In “Double Portrait” Bella sits on her husband’s shoulders and prepares to jump, and in the painting “Over the City” they are already soaring in the sky together. The “walk” was also interpreted as an escape from the reality that the revolution represented at that time. And Chagall himself wrote: “An artist must sometimes be in diapers” - apparently meaning that the outside world should not interrupt the creator’s peaceful flight of fantasy.

"White Crucifix", 1938

Chagall's creation, which embodies the artist's vision of his contemporary world. Remember Chagall’s Jewish cemetery twenty years ago and compare how much more tragic this painting looks. Pay attention to the white beam - it crosses the picture from top to bottom. Art historians believe that this detail represents God himself, but this is inaccurate. The Jewish injunction forbade the depiction of God, and this ray illuminating Christ becomes the personification of the fact that death is destroyed. He forces us to perceive Christ as asleep, and not dead.

In the picture you can see green figure with a bag over his shoulders. This figure appears in several of Chagall's works and has been interpreted as either the Jewish traveler or the prophet Elijah. Also in the middle of the composition is a boat - an association with the hope of salvation from the Nazis.

The painting was painted right before the war - in the year when the Nazis carried out a series of murders of the Jewish people. The background of this picture precisely shows scenes of disasters, pogroms and persecution. “White Crucifixion” is a clear premonition of the coming Holocaust. By the way, this is Pope Francis’ favorite painting.

"Wedding Lights", 1945

Like almost all paintings that depict women, this painting is dedicated to the artist’s first wife, Bella. Chagall met her back in 1909 in Vitebsk, after several years of Parisian wanderings, which we have already written about, he married and lived with her for three decades, until her death in 1944. Bella became the main woman in Chagall's life and the main muse. After the death of his wife, Chagall wrote nothing for nine months, and then, even when entering into relationships with others, he always wrote only for her and for her. Two more of his famous passions are the daughter of the former British consul in the USA Virginia Mankill-Haggard, who ran away from Mark with their son, and Valentina Brodskaya, the daughter of a Kiev manufacturer who lived with Chagall for 33 years and became an excellent manager for him. She completely stopped his communication with Virginia, his son and many former acquaintances, but Chagall worked a lot during this period and became commercially successful.

"Night", 1953

The artist’s movements and events in his life changed the direction of his painting. Chagall's worldview, dynamic and multi-layered, sometimes makes it difficult to understand the subjects of his paintings. The painting was painted upon returning to Paris after emigrating to the USA. A year before, he had already met the owner of a London hat salon, Valentina Brodskaya, and clearly began to change his view of the world and his former life.

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The mystical “Night,” as art critics note, reflects religious themes and conveys nostalgia for Vitebsk. This work also shows Chagall’s love for women, but the plot is incomprehensible without study color range. The red rooster represents the artist’s expectations of imminent changes and worries. The rooster is also associated with Chagall's religious views. The theme of flying people continues. The woman looks real. Flight symbolizes freedom. And the night in the background only emphasizes it: absolute freedom to travel in dreams.

By the way, with Valentina’s approval, Chagall began drawing sketches for church stained glass windows. So if you are in the French Cathedral of St. Stephen in Metz, the German Church of St. Martin and St. Stephen in Main, the English Cathedral of All Saints in Toodley, the UN building in New York, don’t forget to ask about him there.

This year the Bulbash company® Thanks to the works of young authors who were inspired by the works of iconic Belarusian artists, I created an original calendar. The works in it are dedicated to 12 famous masters of Belarus: Peter Blum, Marc Chagall, El Lissitzky, Yazep Drozdovich, Napoleon Orda and others. The idea is revealed both in the limited edition of the Bulbash® Special Art Edition product itself, and in the Bulbash® calendars for 2018.

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1. Student of Leon Bakst
2. Monumental art of Marc Chagall

Marc Chagall's parents dreamed that their son would be an accountant or clerk. However, he became a world-famous artist when he was not even 30 years old. Marc Chagall is considered one of their own not only in Russia and Belarus, but also in France, the USA and Israel - in all the countries where he lived and worked.

Student of Leon Bakst

Marc Chagall (Moishe Segal) was born in a Jewish suburb of Vitebsk on July 6, 1887. He received his primary education at home, like most Jews at that time, studying the Torah, Talmud and Hebrew. Then Chagall entered the Vitebsk four-year school. From the age of 14 he studied drawing with the Vitebsk artist Yudel Pan. The master of the Jewish Renaissance was an academician, worked in household and portrait genre, and his student, on the contrary, leaned towards the avant-garde. But young Chagall’s bold painting experiments so shocked the experienced teacher that he began to study with the young artist for free, and after a while he invited young Chagall to go to St. Petersburg and study with the capital’s mentor. In those years, avant-garde art magazines were published in St. Petersburg, and exhibitions of contemporary Western art were held.

“Having grabbed twenty-seven rubles - the only money in my entire life that my father gave me for an art education - I, a rosy-cheeked and curly-haired young man, set off for St. Petersburg with a friend. To my father’s questions, I stammered and answered that I wanted to go to art school.”

Marc Chagall

In St. Petersburg, he studied at the school of the Society for the Encouragement of Artists and in the studio of Govelius Seidenberg, and studied painting with Lev Bakst. At this time, Chagall's artistic language was being formed: he wrote early works in the spirit of expressionism and tried new painting techniques and techniques.

In 1909, Chagall returned to Vitebsk. He recalled wandering the city streets in search of inspiration: “The city was bursting like a violin string, and people, leaving their usual places, began to walk above the ground. My friends sat down to rest on the roofs. The colors mix, turn into wine, and it foams on my canvases.".

In many of the artist’s canvases you can see this provincial town: rickety fences, humpbacked bridges, brick streets, old church, which he often saw from the window of his workshop.

Here, in Vitebsk, Chagall met his only love and muse - Bella Rosenfeld.

“She looks - oh, her eyes! - Me too.<...>And I realized: this is my wife. The eyes shine on a pale face. Large, convex, black! These are my eyes, my soul."

Marc Chagall

Almost all of his canvases contain female images Bella Rosenfeld is depicted - “Walk”, “Beauty in a White Collar”, “Above the City”.

Marc Chagall. "Birthday". 1915

Marc Chagall. "Walk". 1917

Marc Chagall. "Above the city". 1918

Parisian paintings on nightgowns

In 1911, Chagall met a deputy State Duma Maxim Vinaver, and he helped the artist go to Paris. At that time, many Russian avant-garde artists, writers and poets lived in the capital of France. They often got together with foreign colleagues and discussed new trends in painting and literature. At such meetings, Chagall met the poets Guillaume Apollinaire and Blaise Cendrars, and the publisher Gerwarth Walden.

In Paris, Chagall saw poetry in everything: “In things and in people - from a simple worker in a blue blouse to sophisticated champions of Cubism - there was an impeccable sense of proportion, clarity, form, picturesqueness”. Chagall attended classes at several academies at once, while simultaneously studying the works of Eugene Delacroix, Vincent Van Gogh, and Paul Gauguin. At the same time, the artist said that “no academy could have given me everything that I learned wandering around Paris, visiting exhibitions and museums, looking at shop windows”.

Marc Chagall. "Bride with a fan." 1911

Marc Chagall. "View of Paris from the window." 1913

Marc Chagall. "Me and the village." 1911

A year later he moved to the "Beehive" - ​​a building in which poor foreign artists lived and worked. Here he wrote “Bride with a Fan”, “View of Paris from the Window”, “Me and the Village”, “Self-Portrait with Seven Fingers”. The money that Vinaver sent him was only enough for the bare necessities: food and rent for a workshop. Canvases were expensive, so Chagall increasingly painted on pieces of tablecloth, sheets and nightgowns stretched on stretchers. Out of necessity, he sold his paintings cheaply and in bulk.

Chagall did not join associations or groups. He believed that there was no direction in his painting, but only “colors, purity, love”.

“I was not at all outraged by their [the Cubists’] ideas. “Let them eat their square pears on triangular tables for their health,” I thought.<...>My art does not reason; it is molten lead, the azure of the soul pouring onto the canvas. Down with naturalism, impressionism and cube-realism! They are boring and disgusting to me."

Marc Chagall

In September 1913, publisher Herwart Walden invited Chagall to participate in the first German Autumn Salon. The artist offered three of his paintings: “Dedicated to my bride,” “Calvary,” and “Russia, donkeys and others.” His paintings have been exhibited with works by contemporary artists from different countries. A year later, Walden organized a personal exhibition of Chagall in Berlin - in the editorial office of the magazine Der Sturm. The exhibition included 34 paintings on canvas and 160 drawings on paper. The society and critics highly appreciated the presented works. The artist gained followers. Art historians associate the development of German expressionism in those years with Chagall's paintings.

Chagall - founder of the Vitebsk Art School

In 1914, Chagall returned to Vitebsk and next year married his sweetheart Bella Rosenfeld. He dreamed of returning to Paris with his wife, but the First World War ruined his plans. The artist was saved from being sent to the front by his service in the Petrograd Military-Industrial Committee. At this time, Chagall worked infrequently on paintings: he had to pay a lot of attention to work and family. In 1916, he and Bella had a daughter, Ida. In the rare moments when Marc Chagall was in the studio, he painted views of Vitebsk, portraits of Bella, and canvases dedicated to the war.

Marc and Bella Chagall with their daughter Ida. 1924. Photo: kulturologia.ru

Marc and Bella Chagall. Paris. 1929. Photo: orloffmagazine.com

Marc and Bella Chagall. Photo: posta-magazine.ru

After the revolution, Marc Chagall became Commissioner for Arts in the Vitebsk province. In 1919, he organized the Vitebsk Art School in one of the nationalized mansions.

“The dream that the children of the urban poor, somewhere in their homes lovingly soiling paper, would be introduced to art is coming true... We can afford the luxury of “playing with fire,” and within our walls manuals and workshops are represented and operate freely all directions from left to “right” inclusive.”

Marc Chagall

School students made posters with slogans, advertising signs, and for the anniversary of the October Revolution they painted walls and fences with revolutionary scenes. Marc Chagall created a system of free workshops at the school. The artists who ran the workshops could use their own teaching methods. Kazimir Malevich, Alexander Romm, Nina Kogan taught here. Marc Chagall offered to head the preparatory department to his old teacher, Yudel Peng.

However, disagreements soon arose within the team. The school acquired a Suprematist slant, and Chagall left for Moscow. In Moscow, the artist taught drawing to children in a colony for street children, and painted scenery for the Jewish Chamber Theater. He did not give up the thought of returning to Paris, but crossing the border at that time was not easy.

Illustrator of Gogol, Long, Lafontaine

Marc Chagall had the opportunity to leave the USSR in 1922. To participate in the First Russian Art Exhibition in Berlin, the artist took out most of his paintings, and then left with his family. The exhibition was a success. The press published rave reviews about his work, publishers published biography and catalogs of Chagall's paintings in all European languages.

The artist stayed in Berlin for more than a year. He studied the technique of lithography - printing drawings using an impression.

“When I took a lithographic stone or a copper plate, it seemed to me that I had a talisman in my hands. It seemed to me that I could put all my sorrows and joys on them...”

Marc Chagall

In the spring of 1923, Chagall returned to Paris. The paintings he left at the Paris Hive have disappeared. The artist restored some of them from memory, including “Cattle Trader” and “Birthday”.

Soon Marc Chagall returned to lithography again. His friend, publisher Ambroise Vollard, suggested creating etchings for Nikolai Gogol's Dead Souls. The two-volume “Dead Souls” itself was released in a limited edition - only 368 copies. It was a collector's edition: each illustration in the book was numbered and signed by the artist, and the handmade paper was protected by the Ames mortes - “Dead Souls” watermark. One set of engravings - 96 works - was donated by Marc Chagall to the Tretyakov Gallery.

In 1944, he prepared to return to Paris, liberated from the Germans. But these days Bella died suddenly. Chagall took the loss seriously. He did not paint for nine months, and when he returned to creativity, he created two works dedicated to Bella - “Wedding Candles” and “Around Her.”

Marc Chagall. Wedding candles. 1945

Marc Chagall. Around her (In memory of Bella). 1945

After this, Marc Chagall was married twice more. First on the American translator Virginia McNeill-Haggard, the couple had a son, David, and then on Valentina Brodskaya.

The artist continued to illustrate books, painted frescoes and made stained glass for cathedrals and synagogues. At the request of André Malraux, the French Minister of Culture, Chagall painted the ceiling at the Paris Grand Opera. This was the first piece of classical architecture to be decorated by an avant-garde artist. Chagall divided the ceiling into colored sectors, in each of which he depicted scenes from operas and ballet performances. Silhouettes complemented the stage scenes Eiffel Tower and Vitebsk houses. Marc Chagall also created mosaics for the Parliament building in Israel, and two picturesque panels for the Metropolitan Opera in the USA.

In 1973, Marc Chagall visited the USSR. Here he held an exhibition of works at the State Tretyakov Gallery, after which he donated several canvases to the Tretyakov Gallery and the Pushkin Museum.

In 1977, Marc Chagall was awarded France's highest award, the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor. At the end of the same year, on Chagall’s anniversary, the artist’s personal exhibition was held at the Louvre.

Chagall died in a mansion in Saint-Paul-de-Vence. He is buried in the local cemetery in Provence.

Marc Chagall

Jewish painter, graphic artist, sculptor, monumentalist, one of the founders of the artistic avant-garde of the 20th century.

Chagall's fate is inextricably linked with two cities - Belarusian Vitebsk, where he was a native, and Paris, where Marc established himself as a painter.

Experts attribute Chagall’s work specifically to the Parisian school of modern art. In his work, Chagall managed to combine the ancient traditions of Jewish culture and modern innovation. create your own unique style.

He lived a long, bright, eventful life, in which there was everything - both exile and great love, and extraordinary success.

Marc Chagall - “The Violinist”, 1912

Available in northwestern Belarus old City Vitebsk. At the end of the 18th century, by decree of Empress Catherine II, the “Pale of Settlement” was determined, which determined the places of residence of the Jewish population that passed to the Russian Empire after the partition of Poland.

There were many Jewish poor people here. This included the Chagall family. Young Khatskel-Mordukh Chagall worked as a clerk in fish store in Peskovatiki, the Jewish district of the city. And his young wife Feige-Ite was sitting at home, expecting their first child.

On July 7, 1887, in Vitebsk or Liozno, which was located 40 kilometers from the provincial center, a boy was born into the world, who was named Moisha or Mark (this is a naturalized Russian name Chagall).

He was an obedient, focused, serious boy beyond his years. But no one yet knew that in this very simple, poor family a real genius was growing.

Mark Zakharovich was a believing boy all his life. And this is one of the important circumstances that helps us understand the secret of the success of this amazing painter, one of the best artists of our time. Even in the most difficult times he did not despair. Faith did not allow this: after all, despair is one of the sins. Everything must be accepted as the will of God. Including failures.

Chagall lived a long life - almost 98 years. And he died in 1985.

Mark's father Khatskel-Mordukh was a kind-hearted, quiet, very pious and infinitely kind man. He never punished children for anything.

Mark's mother was a woman of a different type. She was a talkative, powerful and enterprising woman. When any dangerous situation arose in the family, the indecisive father relied on the mother.

Marc Chagall – “The Dead Man”, 1908

In 1900, Mark turned 13 years old. And in the fall of the same year he was sent to the Vitebsk four-year vocational school.

Four years of study - Mark graduated from college in the spring of 1905 - did not linger particularly long in Chagall’s memory.

In early childhood, adolescence, and during his years of study at a vocational school, Mark constantly drew. No one paid attention to his abilities, considering drawing just childish fun. In addition, Mark drew unusually - he was more attracted color combinations than form.

In 1905, the question of the young man’s future arose “in full force.” Mark turned 17 years old.

In those years, an amazing artist Yuri Moiseevich (Yudel) Pan lived in Vitebsk. A student of Repin, Peng studied for two years at the St. Petersburg Academy of Painting and returned to Vitebsk to organize an art school.

Marc Chagall also came here, to Peng’s school, in 1905. He was brought by his mother, the only one in a large family who appreciated the young man’s artistic abilities and believed in him.

The main problem was that you had to pay to learn painting. And my father still earned pennies. And my mother didn’t work at all. And there were 10 children in the family...

After two months of studying with the best Vitebsk artist, Mark told his parents that he had to leave the city to where “real painters” study - to St. Petersburg.

“Adam and Eve”, 1912

In the end, he was released and Mark left for St. Petersburg. At first it was very hard. He needed to live somewhere, eat something and dress somehow. Finally I managed to get a job as a retoucher for a photographer. Then - as a designer of store signs. Nothing worked out with the apartment - Mark spent the night in poorhouses for the poor, with casual acquaintances, and was hired as a watchman at a dacha for the winter.

But all the difficulties faded before main problem- go to art school. Chagall's persistence was rewarded. He managed to become a student of the Drawing School of the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts of Nicholas Roerich. Here he studied for two years.

Art teachers sincerely believed that Chagall simply... did not know how to draw.

But Chagall stubbornly went his own way and did not listen to anyone. After studying for two years at the Drawing School and saving some money, Mark entered Seidenberg’s private studio, where his teacher was the theater artist and graphic artist Mstislav Valerianovich Dobuzhinsky.

And then Chagall was faced with a lack of understanding from the teacher. Instead of diligently “copying”, the student stubbornly continued to draw his small-town landscapes and... flying people.

I had to leave Dubrovsky. In 1909, Chagall entered the private art school of Elena Nikolaevna Zvantseva. And again not for long. The same conflict between teacher and student. He adored his teachers, he just couldn’t write any other way.

Life was very, very difficult for Mark in those years. He was not even poor, but beggar.

The day he could have breakfast became a holiday.

He was constantly hungry. And the most amazing thing was that from hunger and cold, from homelessness and constant destruction, Chagall did not despair, did not let go, and did not get sick.

In the end, Chagall left his apprenticeship - soon, for financial reasons and realizing that it was not giving him anything new.

In 1908, Mark, having finally found. tolerable housing and vowing to promise the landlady prompt payment. got to work. Chagall moved on to his first professional work. It was the painting “Dead Man,” created in neo-primitivist style.

On one of his visits home, back in 1909, Mark met the daughter of a Vitebsk jeweler, Bella Rosenfeld. Then Mark left for St. Petersburg. A correspondence began between the young people.

A year later, in 1910, they became bride and groom. But they couldn’t get married - Bella’s parents, who treated Mark very well, made him promise that their daughter would become Chagall’s wife only if he could adequately support her.

They broke up. Mark left Vitebsk and, in general, buried his dream of marrying Bella. Thank God Chagall didn’t give up on his dream, but Bella waited. And these young people had a lot ahead happy life. Real great love and a wonderful family. You just had to be patient a little... Four years.

In the spring of 1911, a famous lawyer, one of the first members of the State Duma of Jewish nationality, Maxim Moiseevich Vinaver, came into an art shop on Nevsky Prospekt. Vinaver liked Chagall's paintings. The seller wanted three rubles for each painting. Then Vinaver said coldly.

“War”, 1964

Listen, my dear, I will not buy these paintings. And you won't sell them. Tomorrow at this time, bring this Chagall here. I want to talk to him.

They met the next day. Vinaver looked at the paintings and drawings for more than an hour. Then he told the owner of the shop that he was taking everything, paid one hundred rubles and took Mark out into the street.

Don't set foot here again. And you don't need this money. I buy your paintings from you personally - five hundred rubles apiece.

Mark blinked his eyes in confusion. And when one and a half thousand rubles in banknotes were in his hands, unexpectedly for himself and Vinaver... he began to cry...

They talked for a long time, several hours. We wandered along Nevsky. Vinaver bought pies - Mark was terribly hungry. Finally Maxim Moiseevich said:

Listen, Mark. You are an artist. A great and very talented painter. And you shouldn't study here. You need to go to Paris... You will go there immediately. I will cry…

In 1926, Chagall, who lived in Paris, learned of Vinaver's death. And he wrote: “With great sadness I will say today that my loved one, almost his father, also died with him. My father gave birth to me. and Vinaver made him an artist. Without him, I would probably be a photographer in Vitebsk and would have no idea about Paris.”

Very soon everything changed. Maxim Moiseevich, who had great connections, ensured that Chagall became a scholarship recipient of the St. Petersburg Art Academy. True, it later turned out that Vinaver sent a monthly stipend to Chagall... from his own money. And Mark found out about this too late.

At first, terribly shy, Chagall refused to go to Paris. But in May 1911, Marc Chagall went to Paris.

Mark fell in love with Paris. He adored this city. I idolized, extolled, admired him. Chagall had the phrase “Paris is the second Vitebsk.”

He was simply incredibly lucky with his friends. And all thanks to the fact that Chagall himself was a wonderful person who, like a magnet, attracted the bright, talented, kind and generous.

One day in 1912, journalist Anatoly Lunacharsky came from Russia to Paris. Correspondent of the newspaper “Kyiv Mysl”. Lunacharsky became one of Chagall's friends. And then influential friends appeared in St. Petersburg and Moscow.

In 1912, Chagall sent his first Parisian paintings to the Autumn Salon in St. Petersburg. where they were exhibited together with the works of the “World of Art” group. And in 1913, Mark’s paintings were presented in Moscow at the “Target” exhibition.

“Lovers over the city.” 1918

Chagall gradually became a famous painter. In four years. conducted by him in Paris. it has transformed from provincial. an unknown aspiring artist into an original and innovative painter.

Understanding and accepting Chagall's paintings requires some preparation.

During the four years of Chagall's stay in Paris, he painted... several hundred paintings. It is impossible to calculate exactly; his legacy is as colossal as that of Picasso, who created about 80 thousand works.

Chagall's amazing style, which had no name. defined by Guillaume Apollinaire. He came to Chagall's studio and sat for about an hour. Then he stood up and muttered embarrassedly: “Supernatural!” Apollinaire called Chagall's style “Surnaturalism,” that is, “supernaturalism.”

By 1914, the position of 27-year-old Marc Chagall in modern European painting was so established that he was already called the founder of “new expressionism.” He was no longer as poor as four years ago.

Ahead was a grandiose and extremely important event for Chagall. His first personal exhibition was planned for June 1914 in Berlin.

The exhibition barely opened, giving Chagall many pleasant and exciting experiences. He was getting ready to go to Vitebsk - his younger sister was getting married.

Mark Zakharovich was going to Vitebsk no more than until the end of the summer. Two months and that's it. And then back to Berlin to pick up the exhibition works. Then to Paris to work and work. Could he have known that his “date with Vitebsk” would drag on for 10 years? Hardly…

In Vitebsk he met Bella. It turned out that she had been waiting for him these four years. Now Chagall was no longer poor, and his daughter-in-law’s parents looked at Chagall differently. It took another year for the wedding to be discussed. In August 1914, the wedding of Mark's sister took place. And then the war began.

No one in Russia would stand on ceremony with a Jewish artist. In 1915, Chagall received a summons. But he was able to get a “white ticket”, release from the front and a solution to all his problems. I had to leave my house in Vitebsk and move to Petrograd.

But before that, on July 25, 1915, in Vitebsk, in the parental home of Mark Zakharovich, a wedding took place with Bello. And this, despite the raging war, was the happiest day in the artist’s life.

God gave them a luxurious gift - he gave them great love. For life, until death, forever.

All his life, no matter where Mark’s fate took him, Bella was always there.

After Bella, he had love, and another one, also very happy. marriage. But only Bella remained in his memory.

“Flying carriage.” 1913

Bella Rosenfeld was beautiful woman. Bella became Chagall's main model, his muse, his inspiration. When she died suddenly - this happened in the fateful year for Chagall - 1944 - he was so crushed that he decided to leave the profession. But he didn’t leave and thereby preserved the memory of Bella.

In the summer of 1916, a year after the wedding, Bella gave Mark a daughter, who was named Ida.

In August 1918, Mark and his friends opened an art school in Vitebsk. then the museum. I found and recruited the young avant-garde artist Kazimir Malevich to work.

For two years Chagall was in office and had full power. Mark was “displaced” by his colleague, the artist Malevich, from whom Chagall never expected anything like this.

Malevich accused Chagall's work of being “not revolutionary enough.” Mol, Chagall is still “playing” with images. Malevich went to Moscow, from there he brought documents stating that he would be in charge.

And Chagall was just tired. In a few days he handed over his affairs, packed his things, his daughter, and together with Bella... left Vitebsk. As it turned out, forever.

In 1920, the Chagall family moved to Moscow. Chagall immediately received an order from the Jewish Chamber Theater. They paid little money. There were no large orders. Chagall did not like all this, and he decided to leave Moscow.

A free place was found in Malakhovka, near Moscow, in a children's colony for street children. Chagall went there too. Whole academic year he worked as a simple art teacher. Chagall considered the only advantage of his position to be the huge, bright workshop provided to him by the school management.

Meanwhile, in Russia he was well known and appreciated. Small exhibitions of his works opened one after another - in Petrograd, his native Vitebsk, Moscow

At the end of the spring of 1922, Chagall clearly understood that in the country that was his homeland, no one needed him.

Chagall decided to leave the country forever. Russia is not his country. He decided to ask the authorities to let him go to the West, the formal reason being to clarify the fate of the paintings remaining in Berlin and Paris.

In June 1922, Marc Chagall, Bella and Ida boarded an international train that was supposed to take them to the Baltic states.

They did not stay long in Canus. his paintings already belonged to private owners.

“Big Circus”

In Berlin, only ten paintings were returned, and in Paris, it seems, not a single one remained. Having sold two paintings, Chagall took up... his studies. 35 years old, already a recognized master, Chagall studied again - this time a new technique. By the end of 1922, he had mastered the techniques of etching, drypoint and woodcut. I finished the brilliant book “My Life”.

The money was running out. Then an invitation was sent to him from Paris from Ambroise Vollard. He was embarrassed to say that he did not have a penny to come to Paris. But Ambroise sent him several hundred francs. He immediately packed his things. In September 1923, they boarded the Berlin-Paris train and left Germany.

Ahead was the city that Chagall idolized.

And everything worked out right away. Vollard, the guardian angel of many talents, a generous patron of the arts and a real shark of the painting market, did everything as promised. Filmed by Chagalam nice apartment in the center of Paris. Paid generous allowances. I bought several paintings - paying more than Mark had calculated. And he provided a great one. interesting, rewarding job...

At this time, Vollard decided to publish Gogol’s “Dead Souls,” and not just a good edition, but a luxurious, expensive, richly illustrated one. And the illustrations should have been done by Chagall.

It took Chagall 4 years to create the illustrations. The book was completed only in 1927, published by Ambroise and created a real sensation.

The success was so convincing that in the same 1927, Vollard ordered Chagall to illustrate another book – “Fables” by La Fontaine. This work took another 3 years - the book was ready in 1930.

By 1931, Chagall’s “personal library”—books decorated with his drawings and etchings—consisted of dozens of titles. And Ambroise Vollard conceived a grandiose project, on which he had high hopes. Namely, an edition of the Bible with illustrations by Marc Chagall..

This order both delighted and frightened the artist. Well, who is he to take on the task of illustrating the Book of Books? Putting aside many things, Mark and his family got ready for a long journey. He had to visit biblical places - Syria, Egypt and Palestine.

From this months-long journey, another Marc Chagall returned to France.

Only for the first nine years of work on the illustration. to the Bible - from 1930 to 1939 - Chagall created 66 etchings. And in 1952-1956 he supplemented them with another 39 etchings.

Hundreds of works on religious themes. Illustrated Bible published by Vollard. Own reflections on the essence of existence and the fate of one’s own ancient people- all this ultimately became part of a grandiose collection of Chagall’s works. which he called “The Bible Message.”

Having started this great job in the 30s, Chagall returned to it several times in the future. And then, in 1931, having returned from Palestine, he did not rush to the easel, but continued his journey through Europe.

To Vollard's questions, he replied that his impressions were so strong that they needed to be experienced. And Chagall and Bella traveled all over the Mediterranean. Türkiye, Greece, Balkans, Spain...

Formally, Chagall remained a citizen of Soviet Russia - already the USSR in the Thirties.

Russia wanted to return it, and in the end Chagall decided to put all the emphasis on it. He wrote a statement addressed to the President of France asking for French citizenship. In 1937, Marc, Bella and Ida Chagall became French citizens.

In the 30s, the fame of Marc Chagall reached its apogee. He was famous. And not just famous, but famous all over the world. His paintings sold for huge sums of money. He wasn't rich enough to buy a villa or anything like that, but he didn't need money. Chagall saved a lot of money after the war, becoming one of the richest artists of the 20th century and ahead of Picasso himself in this.

“Walk”, 1917

By the early 1930s, Chagall's style was completely established. Experts defined his style of artistic writing as surreal-expressionist.

And then fatal changes took place in the life of old Europe; the Nazis came to power in Germany. And Chagall, who had demonstratively shunned politics since 1922, suddenly found himself drawn into a dirty story started by the fascists. In 1933, by order of the Minister of Propaganda of Nazi Germany, 50 paintings by Chagall were confiscated from museums and galleries. And by order they were burned at the stake in Mannheim, as an example of “degenerate Jewish art.”

Chagall fell into real depression. And he was treated for it, as always happened with him, through hard work. One after another, he created canvases imbued with apocalyptic forebodings.

Marc Chagall – “White Crucifix”, 1938

On July 6, 1939, Chagall celebrated his 52nd birthday. The date is not round, but still Mark Zakharovich invited his friends. Vollard also arrived. I drank wine with Chagall... This was their last meeting.

Paris was occupied by the Germans. The new French authorities had just passed a law - all Jews were automatically deprived of French citizenship. They packed their things and drove to the Spanish border. Ida stayed in Paris to resolve the issue with her father’s paintings, and after a few days go after them.

The Spaniards did not allow Jews into the territory of their country, even for temporary residence. But Jewish refugees were freely allowed into Portugal.

In Spain, friends helped Chagall and his wife travel to the Portuguese border. And then Mark and Bella ended up in Lisbon. A surprise awaited us here - Ida arrived from Paris in a small old truck. And she brought... Chagall's archive: paintings, drawings, sketches and documents.

In Lisbon, everything was much worse than Chagall imagined. They lined up outside the American Embassy. Daughter Ida made her way to the consul’s reception and said that the great artist Chagall was in the crowd on the street.

A few days later an invitation came from the management of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Officially, as a refugee from the Nazi regime.

In mid-June 1941, the Chagall Family boarded an American liner.

from “The Bible Message”

In New York, Chagall worked primarily as a theater designer at the Metropolitan.

On a September morning in 1944, Chagall entered the bedroom. It was quiet and he walked over to Bella. She died in her sleep.

He sobbed and sobbed. In a matter of hours, Chagall's head turned gray. The scale of the loss was simply incomprehensible.

The daughter did everything for her father to return to this world. Chagall could not forget his wife.

Ida even found for her father... a replacement for her deceased mother. Soon a young housekeeper appeared in the house. It was Virginia.

Their love story, told many years later by Virginia in her book published in 1986, a year after Chagall's death, shows Marc in a slightly different light.

Virginia was burdened by the position of a “married mistress.” But, having lived with Chagall for 7 years, she never spoke about marriage.

In 1946, Chagall and Virginia Haggard had a boy, who was named David - in honor of Chagall's younger brother who died in his youth.

Until 1952, Chagall willingly tinkered with his son and took a direct part in his upbringing. And then it was all over. In 1952, Marc Chagall married for the second time, and his wife Valentina Brodetskaya immediately began a real war with Virginia.

Immediately after the end of the war, Chagall and Ida traveled to France several times. In 1947, Chagall and Ida attended the opening of the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, where Chagall's paintings were exhibited, among others.

In 1948, at the insistence of Ida, the Chagalls moved to France. The return to France was triumphant. Chagall has already been openly hailed as the best artist of our time and a national treasure of France.

Not far from Nice. Chagall chose a villa called “Colline”. I bought it in 1966. Mark Zakharovich spent the rest of his life in this house. This is where he ended his days.

In the spring of 1952, Ida brought together the owner of a London fashion salon and the daughter of a famous manufacturer, Valentina Grigorievna Brodetskaya, who was vacationing in Nice and her father. Valentina and Mark were separated by a 25-year age difference: Chagall was 65, Brodetskaya was 40. A whirlwind romance began between them. A month later, Valentita sold the London business and moved to Nice. And on July 12, 1952, a week after celebrating Chagall’s birthday, Mark and Valentina became husband and wife.

For Chagall, this marriage, which became the last in his life, was very happy.

Age changes everyone. He was not simple. A special theme is Chagall’s stinginess. In his youth, this man could give his last to his friends. And in his mature years, having become a millionaire, he could spare money even for himself.

Back then, his paintings were sold very expensive. Rarely has a Chagall painting sold for less than $1 million.

Chagall has been called “the most Jewish artist of the 20th century.” The religious theme in his work is decisive and even the main one. Chagall visited Israel both before and after the revival of this country.

The first Chagall came to Tel Aviv in 1931.

Chagall's second visit to this city took place 20 years later - in 1951. He again visited the Tel Aviv Museum and donated several paintings.

In 1957, Chagall received a large order from the Savoyard Chapel in Assy and the Cathedral in Metz for large panels and stained glass windows. Here he created almost 1200 square meters wonderful stained glass windows on a biblical theme.

Since 1957, Chagall finally moved away from easel painting and took up applied art. He didn't feel his age at all. In 1957, Chagall turned 70 years old, and he worked as if he was 30 years old.

In 1961, Chagall received a new order - from Israel. He was invited to create a stained glass window for the synagogue of the medical faculty of the Hebrew University near Jerusalem. He stayed here with his faithful Charles Marc for about a year.

In 1977, the Chagall Museum opened in Nice.

“Exodus”, 1952

The most famous mosaics, ceramic panels and stained glass. created by Chagall in the last years of his life, are located in Europe. In 1969, Chagall received an order from Zurich to create stained glass windows for the Fraumünster church. The work took a year and a half; in 1970, the decoration of the church was completed.

This was followed by an order from Reims - in 1974, Chagall designed stained glass windows for the local cathedral.

In 1976 he went to Mainz, where he created stained glass and panels for the Church of St. Stephen. This work lasted until 1981... Dozens of orders!

During his work in Mainz he was already over... 90 years old!

In 1963, President Charles de Gaulle visited Chagall's house in Saint-Paul-de-Vence. Chagall was commissioned to paint the ceiling of the Paris Grand Opera.

A year later, in 1964, the Grand Opera received a new ceiling. And President de Gaulle received an autographed painting from Chagall himself.

Two years later, a similar order came from New York - Chagall was offered to create a panel for the Metropolitan Opera. And in 1966, Chagall and his wife moved to America for several months.

In June 1973, he went on a big and very exciting trip for him - to Moscow and Leningrad.

An exhibition of Chagall’s works was organized in Moscow at the Tretyakov Gallery.

They literally rushed around with him as if he were the highest-ranking guest who could ever visit Russia. He was recognized everywhere, even on the streets. He was surprised. People passed him quietly in Paris and New York. In Nice, he had to stand in a general queue for ice cream. And here…

On July 6, 1973, on the artist’s 86th birthday, a museum dedicated to him opened in Nice. After the memorable year of 1973, Chagall acquired not only the status of the patriarch of French painting, but also a living national treasure.

In 1977, France and the entire art world celebrated Marc Chagall's 90th birthday. On his birthday, Chagall was awarded France's highest award - Grand Cross Legion of Honor. This was the reward of kings and marshals. The award was presented by French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.

He died on the evening of March 28, 1985. Calm and quiet. In the elevator, while he was being taken up to the second floor, to the workshop.

Source – Nikola Nadezhdin “Informal biographies”. Our friendly team advises everyone to read books by this author.

Marc Chagall - biography, facts - the great Jewish painter updated: January 23, 2018 by: website

Mark Zakharovich (Moisey Khatskelevich) Chagall (French Marc Chagall, Yiddish מאַרק שאַגאַל‏‎; July 7, 1887, Vitebsk, Vitebsk province, Russian Empire (present-day Vitebsk region, Belarus) - March 28 1985, Saint-Paul-de-Vence , Provence, France) - Russian and French artist of Belarusian-Jewish origin. In addition to graphics and painting, he was also involved in scenography and wrote poetry in Yiddish. One of the most famous representatives of the artistic avant-garde of the 20th century.

Movsha Khatskelevich (later Moses Khatskelevich and Mark Zakharovich) Chagall was born on June 24 (July 6), 1887 in the Peskovatik area on the outskirts of Vitebsk, was the eldest child in the family of clerk Khatskel Mordukhovich (Davidovich) Chagall (1863-1921) and his wife Feiga-Ita Mendelevna Chernina (1871-1915). He had one brother and five sisters. The parents married in 1886 and were each other's first cousins. The artist’s grandfather, Dovid Yeselevich Chagall (in documents also Dovid-Mordukh Ioselevich Sagal, 1824-?), came from the town of Babinovichi, Mogilev province, and in 1883 he settled with his sons in the town of Dobromysli, Orsha district, Mogilev province, so in the “Lists of real estate owners property of the city of Vitebsk”, the artist’s father Khatskel Mordukhovich Chagall is recorded as a “dobromyslyansky tradesman”; the artist's mother came from Liozno. Since 1890, the Chagall family owned a wooden house on Bolshaya Pokrovskaya Street in the 3rd part of Vitebsk (significantly expanded and rebuilt in 1902 with eight apartments for rent). Marc Chagall also spent a significant part of his childhood in the house of his maternal grandfather Mendel Chernin and his wife Basheva (1844-?, the artist’s paternal grandmother), who by that time lived in the town of Liozno, 40 km from Vitebsk.

He received a traditional Jewish education at home, studying Hebrew, the Torah and the Talmud. From 1898 to 1905, Chagall studied at the 1st Vitebsk four-year school. In 1906 he studied fine arts at the art school of the Vitebsk painter Yudel Pan, then moved to St. Petersburg.

From Marc Chagall’s book “My Life”: “Having taken twenty-seven rubles - the only money in my entire life that my father gave me for an art education - I, a rosy-cheeked and curly-haired young man, am going to St. Petersburg with a friend. It’s decided! Tears and pride were choking me, when I picked up money from the floor, my father threw it under the table. He crawled and picked it up. To my father’s questions, I stammered and answered that I wanted to go to art school... I don’t remember exactly what face he made and what he said. At first he said nothing, then, as usual, he heated up the samovar, poured himself some tea, and only then, with his mouth full, said: “Well, go if you want. But remember: I don’t have any more money. You know it yourself. That’s all I I can scrape together. I won’t send anything. You don’t have to count on it.”

In St. Petersburg, for two seasons, Chagall studied at the Drawing School of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, which was headed by N.K. Roerich (he was accepted into the school without an exam for the third year). In 1909-1911 he continued studying with L. S. Bakst at the private art school of E. N. Zvantseva. Thanks to his Vitebsk friend Victor Mekler and Thea Brakhman, the daughter of a Vitebsk doctor who also studied in St. Petersburg, Marc Chagall entered the circle of young intelligentsia, passionate about art and poetry. Thea Brahman was educated and modern girl, several times she posed nude for Chagall. In the fall of 1909, while staying in Vitebsk, Thea introduced Marc Chagall to her friend Bertha (Bella) Rosenfeld, who at that time was studying at one of the best educational institutions for girls - the Guerrier School in Moscow. This meeting turned out to be decisive in the fate of the artist. “With her, not with Thea, but with her I should be - suddenly it dawns on me! She is silent, and so am I. She looks - oh, her eyes! - Me too. It’s as if we’ve known each other for a long time, and she knows everything about me: my childhood, my current life, and what will happen to me; as if she was always watching me, was somewhere nearby, although I saw her for the first time. And I realized: this is my wife. The eyes shine on a pale face. Large, convex, black! These are my eyes, my soul. Thea instantly became a stranger and indifferent to me. I entered new house, and he became mine forever” (Marc Chagall, “My Life”). Love theme in Chagall's work is invariably associated with the image of Bella. From the canvases of all periods of his work, including the later one (after Bella’s death), her “bulging black eyes” look at us. Her features are recognizable in the faces of almost all the women he depicts.

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