Marc Chagall (1887-1985)

Russian painter

The Russian painter Marc Zacharovic Chagall (1887-1985) was born into a poor Jewish family in Liozno near Vitebsk in Russia. After his first painting lessons Chagall trained further at the School of the Imperial Society for the Advancement of the Arts in St. Pietersburg.
He was a student under Léon Bakst and Dobuzinsky at the private school Zvaneeva from 1908 until 1910. He went to Paris on a scholarship and became acquainted with Chaim Soutine, Amedeo Modigliani, Ferdinand Léger, Alexander Archipenko. He also had a close friendship with Guillaume Apollinaire.

Salon des Indépendants

Marc Chagall participated in the Salon des Indépendants and the Salon d'Automne. His first important solo exhibition was held in the gallery of Der Sturm in Berlin in 1914. After the outbreak of World War I he returned to Russia, where he took part in exhibitions in St. Petersburg and Moscow. In 1915 Marc Chagall married Bella Rosenfeld.

Commissioner for the fine arts

In 1918 Marc Chagall was a commissioner for the fine arts in the Vitebsk local administration. A year later he was the founding director of the Vitebsk Art School with El Lissitzky and Kasimir Malevich as members of the staff. In 1920 he moved to Moscow.

Paris

Marc Chagall returned to Paris via Berlin in 1922. In 1927 he illustrated the Fables of Jean de la Fontaine. He traveled to Palestine in 1931 and worked on illustrations for the Bible in the late thirties.
Chagall emigrated to the United States of America in 1941.

The Fire Bird

Marc designed the stage set for the New York production of Stravinsky's ballet "The Fire Bird" in 1945. In 1947 Chagall returned to Paris. Important exhibitions were held in Paris, London and Amsterdam. In 1950 Marc Chagall moved to Saint-Paul-de-Vence.

Important commissions

After the war Marc Chagall had many important commissions: illustrations for Daphnis and Chloë (1954), murals and stained-glass windows for the church at Assy (1957), paintings for the ceiling of the Paris Opera (1964), murals for the Metropolitan Opera House in New York (1965), stained-glass windows for the Frauenmünster in Zuruch (1970) and stained-glass windows for the Reims Cathedral (1974).

Retrospectives

Retrospectives were organized at the Royal Academy of Arts in London and the Museum of Art in Philadelphia.
Marc Chagall died on 28 March 1985 in Saint-Paul-de-Vence.