Who painted the portrait of Marc Chagall. Marc Chagall - biography, facts

Marc Chagall:

life and work of the artist

Mark Zakharovich (Moses Khatskelevich) Chagall (French Marc Chagall, Yiddish מאַרק שאַגאַל‎; July 7, 1887, Vitebsk, Vitebsk province, Russian empire(current Vitebsk region, Belarus) - March 28, 1985, Saint-Paul-de-Vence, Provence, France) - Russian, Belarusian and French artist of 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[

Biography

Portrait of a young Chagall by his teacher Peng (1914)

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 owners real estate city of Vitebsk”, the artist’s father Khatskel Mordukhovich Chagall is recorded as a “dobromyslyan tradesman”; the artist's mother came from Liozno. Belonged to the Chagall family since 1890 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.

Self-portrait, 1914

From Marc Chagall’s book “My Life” 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. 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, 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 Brachman was an educated and modern girl; she posed nude for Chagall several times. 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 in one of the best educational institutions for girls - 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”). The 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.

In 1911, Chagall went to Paris with the scholarship he received, where he continued to study and met avant-garde artists and poets living in the French capital. Here he first began to use the personal name Mark. In the summer of 1914, the artist came to Vitebsk to meet his family and see Bella. But the war began and the return to Europe was postponed indefinitely. On July 25, 1915, Chagall's wedding to Bella took place.

In 1916, their daughter Ida was born.

who later became a biographer and researcher of her father's work.

Dacha, 1917. National Art Gallery of Armenia

In September 1915, Chagall left for Petrograd and joined the Military-Industrial Committee. In 1916, Chagall joined the Jewish Society for the Encouragement of Arts, and in 1917 he and his family returned to Vitebsk. After the revolution, he was appointed authorized commissioner for arts affairs of the Vitebsk province. On January 28, 1919, Chagall opened the Vitebsk Art School.
In 1920, Chagall left for Moscow and settled in the “house with lions” on the corner of Likhov Lane and Sadovaya. On the recommendation of A. M. Efros, he got a job at the Moscow Jewish Chamber Theater under the direction of Alexei Granovsky. Participated in decoration theater: first he painted wall paintings for the auditoriums and lobby, and then costumes and scenery, including “Love on Stage” with a portrait of a “ballet couple.” In 1921, the Granovsky Theater opened with the play “The Evening of Sholom Aleichem” designed by Chagall. In 1921, Marc Chagall worked as a teacher in a Jewish labor union near Moscow.school-colony "International" for street children in Malakhovka.
In 1922, he and his family went first to Lithuania (his exhibition was held in Kaunas), and then to Germany. In the fall of 1923, at the invitation of Ambroise Vollard, the Chagall family left for Paris. In 1937, Chagall received French citizenship.
In 1941, the management of the Museum of Modern Art in New York invited Chagall to move from Nazi-controlled France to the United States, and in the summer of 1941, Chagall's family came to New York. After the end of the war, the Chagalls decided to return to France. However, on September 2, 1944, Bella died of sepsis at a local hospital; nine months later, the artist painted two paintings in memory of his beloved wife: “Wedding Lights” and “Next to Her.”

The relationship with Virginia McNeill-Haggard, the daughter of the former British consul in the United States, began when Chagall was 58 years old, Virginia - just over 30. They had a son, David (after one of Chagall's brothers) McNeill.

In 1947, Chagall arrived with his family in France. Three years later, Virginia, having taken her son, unexpectedly ran away from him with her lover.

On July 12, 1952, Chagall married “Vava” - Valentina Brodskaya, owner of a London fashion salon and daughter of the famous manufacturer and sugar refiner Lazar Brodsky. But only Bella remained his muse all his life; until his death, he refused to talk about her as if she were dead.

In 1960, Marc Chagall received the Erasmus Prize

Since the 1960s, Chagall mainly switched to monumental forms of art - mosaics, stained glass, tapestries, and also became interested in sculpture and ceramics. In the early 1960s, at the request of the Israeli government, Chagall created mosaics and tapestries for the parliament building in Jerusalem. After this success, he received many orders for the decoration of Catholic, Lutheran churches and synagogues throughout Europe, America and Israel.
In 1964, Chagall painted the ceiling of the Paris Grand Opera commissioned by French President Charles de Gaulle, in 1966 he created two panels for the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and in Chicago he decorated the National Bank building with the mosaic “The Four Seasons” (1972). In 1966, Chagall moved to a house built especially for him, which also served as a workshop, located in the province of Nice-Saint-Paul-de-Vence.

In 1973, at the invitation of the Ministry of Culture Soviet Union Chagall visited Leningrad and Moscow. An exhibition was organized for him at the Tretyakov Gallery. The artist donated to the Tretyakov Gallery and the Museum fine arts them. A.S. Pushkin's works.

In 1977, Marc Chagall was awarded France's highest award - the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor, and in 1977-1978 an exhibition of the artist's works was organized at the Louvre, dedicated to the artist's 90th anniversary. Contrary to all the rules, the Louvre exhibited works by a still living author.

Chagall died on March 28, 1985 at the age of 98 in Saint-Paul-de-Vence. He was buried in the local cemetery. Until the end of his life, “Vitebsk” motifs could be traced in his work. There is a “Chagall Committee”, which includes four of his heirs. There is no complete catalog of the artist’s works.

1997 - the artist’s first exhibition in Belarus.

Painting of the ceiling of the Paris Opera Garnier

Part of the ceiling of the Opera Garnier, painted by Marc Chagall

The lampshade, located in the auditorium of one of the Parisian opera buildings - the Opera Garnier, was painted by Marc Chagall in 1964. The order for the painting was made by the 77-year-old Chagall in 1963 by the French Minister of Culture Andre Malraux. There were many objections to having a Belarusian Jew work on a French national monument, and also to having a building of historical value painted by an artist with a non-classical style of painting.
Chagall worked on the project for about a year. As a result, approximately 200 kilograms of paint were consumed, and the canvas area occupied 220 square meters. The lampshade was attached to the ceiling at a height of more than 21 meters.
The lampshade was divided by color into five sectors by the artist: white, blue, yellow, red and green. The painting traced the main motifs of Chagall's work - musicians, dancers, lovers, angels and animals. Each of the five sectors contained the plot of one or two classical operas or ballets:
White sector - “Pelleas and Melicent”, Claude Debussy
Blue sector - “Boris Godunov”, Modest Mussorgsky; "The Magic Flute", Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Yellow sector - “Swan Lake”, Pyotr Tchaikovsky; "Giselle", Charles Adam
Red sector - “Firebird”, Igor Stravinsky; Daphnis and Chloe, Maurice Ravel
Green sector - “Romeo and Juliet”, Hector Berlioz; "Tristan and Isolde", Richard Wagner

In the central circle of the ceiling, around the chandelier, characters from Bizet’s “Carmen” appear, as well as characters from operas by Ludwig van Beethoven, Giuseppe Verdi and C. W. Gluck.
Also, the painting of the ceiling decorates Parisian architectural landmarks: the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower, the Bourbon Palace and the Opera Garnier. The painting of the ceiling was solemnly presented to the audience on September 23, 1964. More than 2,000 people attended the opening.

Chagall's creativity

The main guiding element of Marc Chagall's work is his national Jewish sense of self, which for him is inextricably linked with his vocation. “If I were not a Jew, as I understand it, I would not be an artist or would be a completely different artist,” he formulated his position in one of his essays.

From his first teacher, Yudel Peng, Chagall received the idea of a national artist; the national temperament found expression in the peculiarities of his figurative structure. Chagall's artistic techniques are based on the visualization of Yiddish sayings and the embodiment of images of Jewish folklore. Chagall introduces elements of Jewish interpretation even into the depiction of Christian subjects (The Holy Family, 1910, Chagall Museum; Homage to Christ / Calvary /, 1912, Museum of Modern Art, New York; White Crucifixion, 1938, Chicago) - a principle to which he remained faithful until the end of his life.

In addition to his artistic work, Chagall published poems, journalistic essays and memoirs in Yiddish throughout his life. Some of them were translated into Hebrew, Belarusian, Russian, English and French.

Mark Zakharovich Chagall (1887-1985) - painter, graphic artist, theater artist, illustrator, master of monumental and applied arts.

CREATIVITY AND BIOGRAPHY OF MARC CHAGALL

One of the leaders of the world avant-garde of the 20th century, Chagall managed to organically combine the ancient traditions of Jewish culture with cutting-edge innovation. Born in Vitebsk on June 24 (July 6), 1887. Received traditional religious education at home (Hebrew, reading the Torah and Talmud). In 1906 he came to St. Petersburg, where in 1906–1909 he attended the drawing school at the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, the studio of S.M. Zaidenberg and the school of E.N. Zvantseva. He lived in St. Petersburg-Petrograd, Vitebsk and Moscow, and in Paris from 1910–1914. All of Chagall's work is initially autobiographical and lyrically confessional.

Already in his early paintings, themes of childhood, family, death, deeply personal and at the same time “eternal” (Saturday, 1910, Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne) dominate. Over time, the theme of the artist’s passionate love for his first wife, Bella Rosenfeld (“Above the City,” 1914–1918, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow) comes to the fore. Characteristic are the motifs of “shtetl” landscape and life, coupled with the symbolism of Judaism (“Gate of the Jewish Cemetery”, 1917, private collection, Paris).

However, looking at the archaic, including the Russian icon and popular print (which had a great influence on him), Chagall joins futurism and predicts future avant-garde movements. Grotesque and illogical subjects, sharp deformations and surreal-fairy-tale color contrasts of his canvases (“I and the Village”, 1911, Museum of Modern Art, New York; “Self-Portrait with Seven Fingers”, 1911–1912, City Museum, Amsterdam) have a great impact influence on the development of surrealism.

Saturday Gate of the Jewish Cemetery Me and the Village Self-Portrait with Seven Fingers

After the October Revolution in 1918–1919, Chagall served as a commissar of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of the provincial department of public education in Vitebsk, decorating the city for revolutionary holidays. In Moscow, Chagall painted a series of large wall panels for the Jewish Chamber Theater, thereby taking the first significant step towards monumental art. Having left for Berlin in 1922, from 1923 he lived in France, Paris or the south of the country, temporarily leaving it in 1941–1947 (he spent these years in New York). Ran into different countries Europe and the Mediterranean, and visited Israel more than once. Having mastered various engraving techniques, at the request of Ambroise Vollard, Chagall created in 1923–1930, strikingly expressive illustrations for “Dead Souls” by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol and “Fables” by J. de La Fontaine.

As he reaches the peak of fame, his style - generally surreal and expressionistic - becomes easier and more relaxed. Not only the main characters, but also all the elements of the image float, forming constellations of colored visions. Through the recurring themes of Vitebsk childhood, love, and circus performances, dark echoes of past and future world catastrophes flow (“Time Has No Coasts,” 1930–1939, Museum of Modern Art, New York). Since 1955, work began on “Chagall’s Bible” - this is the name given to a huge cycle of paintings that reveal the world of the ancestors of the Jewish people in a surprisingly emotional and bright, naively wise form.

In line with this cycle, the master created and big number monumental sketches, compositions based on which decorated sacred buildings different religions– both Judaism and Christianity in its Catholic and Protestant varieties: ceramic panels and stained glass windows of the chapel in Assy (Savoy) and the cathedral in Metz, 1957–1958; stained glass windows: synagogues of the medical faculty of the Hebrew University near Jerusalem, 1961; Cathedral (Fraumünster Church) in Zurich, 1969–1970; Cathedral in Reims, 1974; St. Stephen's Church in Mainz, 1976–1981; and etc.). These works of Marc Chagall radically updated the language of modern monumental art, enriching it with powerful colorful lyricism.

In 1973, Chagall visited Moscow and St. Petersburg in connection with an exhibition of his works at the Tretyakov Gallery.

When I open my eyes in the morning, I dream of seeing a more perfect world where friendliness and love rule. This alone is enough to make my day beautiful and worthy of being

Marc Chagall is the only artist in the world whose stained glass windows decorate cathedrals of almost all faiths. Among the fifteen temples there are ancient synagogues, Lutheran churches, Catholic churches and other public buildings located in America, Europe and Israel.
Specially commissioned by Charles de Gaulle, the current French president, the artist designed the ceiling of the Grand Opera in Paris. Two years later he painted two panels for the New York Metropolitan Opera.
In July 1973, a museum called the “Biblical Message” opened in Nice, France, which was decorated with the artist’s works and housed in the building that he himself conceived. Some time later, the museum was awarded national status by the government.
Chagall is considered one of the instigators of the pictorial sexual revolution. The fact is that already in 1909 a naked woman was depicted on his canvas. The model was Thea Brahman, who agreed to such a role only out of pity for the artist, who financially could not afford professional models. Later, these sessions led to a romantic relationship, and Thea became the painter’s first love.
Being in a bad mood, the artist painted only biblical scenes or flowers. At the same time, the latter sold much better, which greatly disappointed Chagall.
The painter considered only love to be the most important thing in the Universe and life.
Marc Chagall died on March 28, 1985 while climbing to the second floor in an elevator, therefore, his death occurred in flight, albeit not very high.

Bibliography and filmography of the artist

Apchinskaya N. Marc Chagall. Portrait of the artist. - M.: 1995.
McNeil, David. In the footsteps of an angel: memories of the son of Marc Chagall. M
Maltsev, Vladimir. Marc Chagall - theater artist: Vitebsk-Moscow: 1918-1922 // Chagall collection. Vol. 2. Materials of the VI-IX Chagall readings in Vitebsk (1996-1999). Vitebsk, 2004. pp. 37-45.
Marc Chagall Museum in Nice - Le Musee National Message Biblique Marc Chagall (“Marc Chagall's Biblical Message”)
Haggard W. My life with Chagall. Seven years of abundance. M., Text, 2007.
Khmelnitskaya, Lyudmila. Marc Chagall Museum in Vitebsk.
Khmelnitskaya, Lyudmila. Marc Chagall in artistic culture Belarus 1920s - 1990s.
Chagall, Bella. Burning lights. M., Text, 2001; 2006.
Shatskikh A. S. Gogol's world through the eyes of Marc Chagall. - Vitebsk: Marc Chagall Museum, 1999. - 27 p.
Shatskikh A. S.“Blessed be my Vitebsk”: Jerusalem as a prototype of Chagall’s City // Poetry and painting: Collection of works of memoryN. I. Khardzhieva/ Ed.M. B. MeilakhaAndD. V. Sarabyanova. - M.: Languages of Russian culture, 2000. - P. 260-268. - ISBN 5-7859-0074-2.
Shishanov V.A. “If you’re going to be a minister...” // Bulletin of the Marc Chagall Museum. 2003. No. 2(10). pp. 9-11.
Kruglov Vladimir, Petrova Evgenia. Marc Chagall. - St. Petersburg: State Russian Museum, Palace Editions, 2005. - P. 168. - ISBN 5-93332-175-3.
Shishanov V.“These young people were ardent socialists...”: Participants in the revolutionary movement surrounded by Marc Chagall and Bella Rosenfeld // Bulletin of the Marc Chagall Museum. 2005. No. 13. P. 64-74.
Shishanov V. About the lost portrait of Marc Chagall by Yuri Pan // Bulletin of the Marc Chagall Museum. 2006. No. 14. P. 110-111.
Shishanov, Valery. Marc Chagall: Sketches for the artist's biography based on archival matters
Shishanov V. A. Vitebsk Museum of Modern Art: history of creation and collections. 1918-1941. Minsk: Medisont, 2007. - 144 p.

Mark Zakharovich (Moses Khatskelevich) Chagall (French Marc Chagall, Yiddish מאַרק שאַגאַל‎). Born July 7, 1887 in Vitebsk, Vitebsk province (now Vitebsk region, Belarus) - died March 28, 1985 in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, Provence, France. Russian, Belarusian and French artist of 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.

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.

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 an educated and modern girl, she posed nude for Chagall several times.

In the autumn of 1909, during her stay in Vitebsk, Thea introduced Marc Chagall to her friend Bertha (Bella) Rosenfeld, who at that time studied 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. The 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.

On July 25, 1915, Chagall's wedding to Bella took place. In 1916, their daughter Ida was born, who later became a biographer and researcher of her father’s work.

In 1920, Chagall left for Moscow and settled in the “house with lions” on the corner of Likhov Lane and Sadovaya. On the recommendation of A. M. Efros, he got a job at the Moscow Jewish Chamber Theater under the direction of Alexei Granovsky. He took part in the artistic design of the theater: first he painted wall paintings for the auditoriums and lobby, and then costumes and scenery, including “Love on Stage” with a portrait of a “ballet couple.”

In 1921, the Granovsky Theater opened with the play “The Evening of Sholom Aleichem” designed by Chagall. In 1921, Marc Chagall worked as a teacher at the Third International Jewish labor school-colony near Moscow for street children in Malakhovka.

In 1922, he and his family went first to Lithuania (his exhibition was held in Kaunas), and then to Germany. In the fall of 1923, at the invitation of Ambroise Vollard, the Chagall family left for Paris.

In 1937, Chagall received French citizenship.

In 1941, the management of the Museum of Modern Art in New York invited Chagall to move from Nazi-controlled France to the United States, and in the summer of 1941, Chagall's family came to New York. After the end of the war, the Chagalls decided to return to France. However, on September 2, 1944, Bella died of sepsis in a local hospital. Nine months later, the artist painted two paintings in memory of his beloved wife: “Wedding Lights” and “Next to Her.”

Relationship with Virginia McNeill-Haggard, the daughter of a former British consul in the United States, began when Chagall was 58 years old, Virginia - just over 30. They had a son, David (after one of Chagall's brothers) McNeill. In 1947, Chagall arrived with his family in France. Three years later, Virginia, having taken her son, unexpectedly ran away from him with her lover.

On July 12, 1952, Chagall married “Vava” - Valentina Brodskaya, owner of a London fashion salon and daughter of the famous manufacturer and sugar refiner Lazar Brodsky. But only Bella remained his muse all his life; until his death, he refused to talk about her as if she were dead.

In 1960, Marc Chagall received the Erasmus Prize.

In 1964, Chagall painted the ceiling of the Paris Grand Opera commissioned by French President Charles de Gaulle, in 1966 he created two panels for the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and in Chicago he decorated the National Bank building with the mosaic “The Four Seasons” (1972).

In 1966, Chagall moved to a house built especially for him, which also served as a workshop, located in the province of Nice - Saint-Paul-de-Vence.

In 1973, at the invitation of the Ministry of Culture of the Soviet Union, Chagall visited Leningrad and Moscow. An exhibition was organized for him at the Tretyakov Gallery. The artist donated to the Tretyakov Gallery and the Museum of Fine Arts. A.S. Pushkin's works.

In 1977, Marc Chagall was awarded France's highest award - the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor, and in 1977-1978 an exhibition of the artist's works was organized in the Louvre, dedicated to the artist's 90th anniversary. Contrary to all the rules, the Louvre exhibited works by a still living author.

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 the national religious tradition, the feeling of the inseparability of life and being, making the images of one’s 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 contemporary 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 painted canvases “Snuff” (1912. Private collection, Germany) and “Praying Jew” (1912-1913. National Museum, Jerusalem, Israel) made Chagall one of the artistic leaders of the reviving 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 series 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 used the technique of black and white drawing to create expressive 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. Persecution of Jews in fascist Germany, a premonition of an approaching catastrophe paints Chagall’s canvases of the pre-war years in apocalyptic tones: one of the leading themes of his art is the crucifixion: “White Crucifixion” (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 with Valentina (Vava) Brodskaya and 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 ancient Catholic churches, Lutheran churches, synagogues, and public buildings in Europe, America, and Israel. This is a ceramic panel, and stained glass windows of the chapel in Assy (Savoy), and stained glass windows of the cathedral in Metz, and in the synagogue of the medical faculty of the Hebrew University near Jerusalem, and in the Fraumunster 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 mosaic "The Four Seasons" 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 - the Grand Cross of the 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.

Chagall did not pick up a brush for 9 months. Only thanks to the attention and care of his daughter Ida, he gradually returns to life.

They took Bella's manuscripts as the basis for a collection of her memoirs called “Burning Lights”: Chagall created 68 illustrations, and Ida translated from Yiddish.

Virginia Haggard in the life of Chagall

In the summer of 1945, Ida decided to hire a nurse to care for her father. This is how Virginia Haggard appeared in Chagall's life. Outwardly, she reminded Mark Bella. A romance broke out between them, which gave Mark a son.

Chagall took on the project “Firebird” by Igor Stravinsky. He designed the curtain, created three sets and more than 80 costumes for the ballet. The premiere was a triumph. American critics received the artist with a bang.

In 1946, Chagall and Virginia moved into a new home in northeastern New York, where their son David was born. A year later, the artist’s new family went to France.

Numerous exhibitions of Chagall's works were held throughout the world. Mark sees that he is remembered and loved. He settles on the Cote d'Azur in Saint-Paul-de-Vence near Nice.

In the 50-60s of the twentieth century, Chagall's field of activity expanded. He receives numerous commissions for monumental painting, book illustrations, sculptures, ceramics, stained glass, tapestries and mosaics.

In 1951, Virginia left Chagall. Taking her son with her, she moves in with a photographer, with whom the affair has lasted for the last two years.

Marc Chagall was left alone again. After Virginia left, biblical scenes again appeared on his canvases, as during the Second World War.

In the spring of 1952, the artist met Valentina Brodskaya, or Vava, as her friends and relatives called her. Very soon, on July 12 of the same year, they became husband and wife.

Life with Valentina Brodskaya

In the years when Vava entered Chagall’s life, the artist’s work reached the peak of recognition. The price of his paintings is skyrocketing. Large collectors are eager to get their hands on them. Even in the restaurants where he and Vava often went to dine, there was a hunt for Chagall’s drawings. He always had 2-3 pencils and pastels with him. While waiting for an order, he often drew on napkins and tablecloths. These "unconscious" creations cost hundreds and even thousands of francs.

Marc Chagall was in third place in the list of the most expensive masters of French painting (the first place was occupied by Picasso, the second by Matisse).

Chagall managed to become one of the few artists who worked on religious themes of various faiths. His hand belongs to the authorship of the stained glass windows of the Catholic Cathedral in Mezza, Protestant Church in Zurich, synagogues in Jerusalem. His paintings can be seen in the collections of Arab sheikhs.

In 1964, the French Minister of Culture commissioned the artist to paint the ceiling of the citadel of French culture, the Paris Opera. On the ceiling, the artist depicted the silhouettes of two cities - Paris and Vitebsk, forever connecting them with an indissoluble ring of painting.

In 1975, he wrote many large works on biblical and spiritual themes: “Don Quixote”, “The Fall of Icarus”, “Job”, “Prodigal Son”.

Marc Chagall spent his entire life drawing flying people. On the canvas of one of the most famous paintings - “Lovers over the city” - he soars over his beloved Vitebsk together with Bella.

Fate decreed that Mark died in flight. On March 28, 1985, 98-year-old Chagall boarded the elevator to go up to the second floor of his chateau in Saint-Paul-de-Vence. During the ascent, his heart stopped.

Who painted the portrait of Marc Chagall. Marc Chagall - biography, facts - the great Jewish painter

CREATIVITY AND BIOGRAPHY OF MARC CHAGALL

Bibliography and filmography of the artist

Virginia Haggard in the life of Chagall

Life with Valentina Brodskaya