Marc Chagall

Marc Chagall was born in 1887 and died in 1985. He was the eldest of nine children and his Jewish family were poor and lived in Western Russia. At 19 Chagall joined a local art school run by Yehuda Pen, who painted realistic scenes and portraits. Chagall soon got a job retouching photographs which earned him money. In 1906-1907 he went to the city of St Petersburg in Russia. He started displaying his work while studying at the School of Imperial Society for the Protection of the Fine Arts. The schools director Nicholai Roerich was very supporting and encouraging. Although, after 2 years, Chagall found that the teaching in the art school was boring, the atmosphere was cold and all around it was depressing. In 1907 he began studying art with Leon Bakst. In October 1909 on one of his visits home he met Bella Rosenfeld. She often appears in his paintings and he later married her. It was at this time that his distinct style that we recognize today began to emerge. In 1910 he moved to Paris for 4 years. Chagall arrived in Paris at a time when Cubism was beginning and cubists encouraged him to use bright colours and experiment with different styles. Even though he lived in Paris, a lot of his inspirations were from his life in Russia. In 1914, Chagall had an exhibition of his own work in Berlin. From there he travelled to Vitebsk, his home town, while he was there, World War 1 broke out and he couldn’t leave. In 1917, the Russian Revolution began and Jews were allowed more freedom which he was very happy about. In 1920 he moved to Moscow and painted a series of murals for the state Jewish chamber theatre. Chagall thought that he did his best work here which included dancers, musicians, acrobats, fiddlers and Jewish figures. Unfortunately, the authorities refused to pay him and he left the country. In 1931, he was invited to Israel by the mayor of Tel Aviv where he started a series of bible illustrations and other inspired works. He travelled to Europe in the mid 1930’s and at the beginning of World War 2; in the middle of 1941 he was rescued by an invitation from the Museum Of Modern Art in New York to come to the United States. Sadly his wife died suddenly in 1944. In 1948 he returned to France and throughout his lifetime he was involved in many big projects around the world.

He was friends with Robert Delaunay, Amadeo Modigliani and Roger de La Fresnave. Delaunay helped Chagall notice geometric shapes and segments of bright colours. Chagall's use of rich and vibrant colours and story-telling aspect of the work is uniquely his own. His paintings were full of strong, bright colours portraying a dreamlike state. This included; Fantasy, nostalgia and religion that began to meld together to