Marc Chagall – Russian-Jewish Artist, a European Modernist Painter

Twentieth-century European modernist, figurative artist, Mark Zakharovich Shagal, or Marc Chagall was born Moshe Shagal on July 7, 1887, in Vitebsk, Belarus, then part of the Russian Federation. Marc, the eldest of nine children, came from a Russian Jewish family. His father, Khatskl (Zakhar) Shagal, worked for a herring trader and his mother, Feige-Ite, ran a small grocery store. During his early years, Chagall was not allowed to attend a local community school due to his Jewish ancestry. His mother had to bribe the director with fifty rubles to let him in.

Chagall started drawing at school. He copied portraits and other famous drawings. The Belarusian-Jewish artist and painter Yehuda Pen instructed him in painting in 1906. In 1907, Marc joined the School of the Society of Art Supporters in Saint Petersburg. He was tutored there by the Russian painter Nikolai Roerich. During 1908-10, Marc Chagall studied at the Zvantseva School of Drawing and Painting. In 1909, at the age of twenty, on one of his trips back home, Marc met his future wife, Bella Rosenfeld.

On the professional front, Chagall gradually rose to fame as an artist. Soon after, he moved to Paris, then considered the center of the artistic community. There he became friends with Guillaume Apollinaire, Robert Delaunay and Fernand Léger. In 1914, Marc returned home and married Bella in 1915. They had a daughter from the marriage in 1916, when World War I also began.

The artist dabbled in all possible artistic media, from his paintings to his book illustrations, set designs, ceramics, stained glass, tapestries and engravings. ‘Cubism’, ‘Symbolism’, ‘Fauvism’ and ‘Surrealism’, all were his forte. Bella posed as a model for many of Chagall’s works. The artist achieved recognition for several of his works, such as “I and my people (1911), “Self-portrait with seven fingers (1912-13)”, “Red Jew (1915)”, “About the city (1914)”. – 1918),” and “The Fall of the Angel (1923-1947).” Upon his return to Russia, Marc Chagall joined the Russian Revolution of 1917. He was also appointed Vitebsk Commissioner of Fine Arts.

In 1920, Chagall, his wife, and their daughter moved to Moscow and to Paris in 1923. In 1937, Marc obtained French citizenship. However, due to World War II, the family had to flee to Madrid. During 1941-1948 they resided in the United States. Jewish martyrs and Jewish refugees were primarily depicted in most of Chagall’s works from this time. Meanwhile, on September 2, 1944, his wife died. The artist did not paint anything for the next nine months. In 1945, however, Chagall entered into a romantic relationship with his housekeeper of thirty years, Virginia Haggard McNeil, with whom he even had a child. The couple moved to Paris in 1950. The same year, Marc started Graphics, along with “Cubism” and “Fauvism” influences. Here, Virginia left him for another man in 1952. Chagall later married Valentina Brodsky, who was 25 years his junior. Valentina encouraged him to undertake large artistic projects, for example the “Biblical Message Cycle”, which was later installed in the Marc Chagall National Museum of the Biblical Message in Nice, France.

Marc’s visits to Greece and Israel in 1957 helped him develop the full concept of color symbolism and figurative art. It was then that he began with sculpture, ceramics and stained glass painting. Mark Chagall traveled extensively throughout the world and produced an immense amount of work throughout his career. ‘Russian Expressionism’ and ‘French Cubism’ influenced Mark’s painting style. Chagall died on March 28, 1985, at the age of 97, in Saint Paul, France.