Marc Chagall

Background

Marc Chagall was born as Moishe Shagal near the city of Vitebsk on July 7, 1887. He was born to a Lithuanian Jewish Hasidic family with him being the oldest of nine children. During that time, the Jewish account for half of the population in Vitebsk. During the era of the Russian empire, Jewish children were not allowed to go to regular schools and universities. Chagall had to attend a local Jewish religious school. However, when he was 13, his mother tried enrolling him in a regular high school by offering money to the professor. It was at this school that Chagall first got exposed to art when he saw his classmate drawing. Later on, he confessed to his mother his interest in art, even if his mother did not understand it at first.

He first trained in 1906 under the realist artist Yehuda Pen who offered to teach him for free. After a few months at the school, however, Chagall left after he realized that realism was not in line with his dream as an artist. The young Chagall then moved to Saint Petersburg in 1907, seeking mentorship from the stage designer Leon Bakst. During this time, Chagall’s work was considered dark. Works such as “The Dead Man” (1908) and “My Fiancee with Black Gloves” (1909) showcase Chagall’s experimentation in arranging black and white colors. With Chagall gaining more momentum in his career, it was only right for him to then move to Paris (1910). It was during his first four years in Paris that Chagall began gaining recognition. Around this time, he created pieces such as “Self-Portrait With Seven Fingers” (1912), “I and the Village” (1911), “Hommage à Apollinaire” (1912), “Calvary” (1912), “The Fiddler” (1912), and “Paris Through the Window” (1913). Chagall cites his memories of childhood and life in Vitebsk as a major influence on his art around that time. After doing several exhibitions, Chagall finally did his first solo show in Berlin where he made quite an impression on the German circle of artists. He then moved back to Vitebsk where he became a commissar of art. He traveled a lot during this time from Vitebsk, Moscow, Berlin, to Paris.

Throughout multiple moves to many places, Chagall started exploring other mediums such as stage design, costume design, and printmaking. When Hitler rose to power, Chagall created “White Crucifixion” in 1938, which was considered one of his most powerful works. In the painting, he used Christian and Jewish symbolism to depict the terror Nazi German brought upon the German Jews. With the increasing Nazi occupation in Europe, Chagall and his family sought refuge in New York, United States (1941). Chagall developed the themes that he already created in the previous years with pieces such as “Yellow Crucifixion” and “The Feather and the Flowers” (1943). Chagall’s work remained iconic for the last 30 years of his life. He mastered making art on stained glass during the late 1950s, creating pieces in various locations such as the Cathedral of Metz in France, the Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem, the United Nations building in New York, and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Various reports reported a lot about Chagall’s journey as an artist. Not much was mentioned about his personal life. However, one thing that people knew was his marriage to Bella Rosenfeld, the daughter of a wealthy merchant from Vitebsk (1915). Just like his other works, this particular experience in his life became a big influence on some of his art. Rosenfeld appeared in paintings including “The Birthday” (1915) and “Double Portrait with a Glass of Wine” (1917). Rosenfeld’s death in 1944 became an inspiration for pieces such as “Around Her” (1945), “The Wedding Candles” (1945), and “Nocturne” (1947)