A fulfilled prophecy in the life of Marc Chagall: Three women, one of whom is extraordinary

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The whole life of Marc Chagall is one continuous flight. He flew in his work and moved from place to place, unable to overcome his craving for wanderings. He was still very young when the gypsy predicted an extraordinary life and love for three women for him, but only one of them was to become special, and the other two - the most ordinary. However, the prediction about the end of the artist's earthly journey in flight also came true.

First love, an extraordinary woman

Marc Chagall was incredibly lucky: he met that very extraordinary woman in his youth, when he returned to Vitebsk from St. Petersburg, where he studied at the school of the Society for the Encouragement of Artists, and also studied at Govelia Seidenberg's studio and took lessons from Lev Bakst.

He was 22 years old, he saw everything around in bright colors, and when he first saw Bella Rosenfeld visiting a mutual friend Thea Brahman, the young artist instantly fell in love. Already at the very moment when he was just introduced to the young and charming Bella, Chagall already knew: she would certainly become his wife.

She was very young, but in her the genius unrecognized at that time saw his own soul, felt such an incredible kinship with her that he had no doubts: this young person is his destiny.

At the time when he was just developing his style, few believed in his success. Marc Chagall was always in some kind of thoughtfulness and it seemed that his thoughts and dreams were connected only with his paintings, present and future. The people around him did not take Chagall seriously, and only young Bella could see in him both talent and fortitude. She, like the artist himself, realized that she would be happy with this person.

Bella, the daughter of a wealthy jeweler, received an excellent education. She was keenly interested in art, studied at the Higher Courses for Women, and tried to write. Next to her, Marc Chagall felt as if in zero gravity, and Bella herself, it seemed, did not walk on the ground, like all ordinary people, she seemed to fly. In the future, on almost all canvases, Marc Chagall will depict his beloved soaring, flying, unearthly.

A year later, the lovers declared themselves bride and groom, but soon after that the young artist left for Paris. Many familiar couples were perplexed and worried that Mark simply left Bella. But the bride herself was absolutely calm. She knew for sure: Mark could not leave her, he will definitely come back and make her happy. Moreover, all four years, while the artist was in the capital of France, they exchanged letters. Delicate, full of love and light sadness caused by separation.

Of course, he returned, and in 1915 Marc Chagall and Bella Rosenfeld became husband and wife, in 1916 their daughter Ida was born. The artist was completely happy. In 1922, the wind of wanderings again beckoned the artist, and he and his family moved first to Kaunas, then to Berlin, and as a result ended up in Paris, which Chagall called “his Vitebsk”.

They lived in France until World War I, and already in June 1941 a steamer carrying Marc Chagall with his wife and daughter moored off the coast of the United States. After only three years, his extraordinary muse was gone. After Bella passed away from complications from the flu, the artist did not touch the brush for nine months. He did not feel inspiration and did not see colors. All these long months merged for him into one colorless and endless day.

Second love that saves you from longing

Most of all worried about his father was his daughter Ida, who by that time was already 28 years old. She understood: from loneliness, her father would simply wither away, but without paints and an easel, he could really die. And then she herself brought the housekeeper to her father's house, Virginia Haggard, who outwardly looked so much like Bella Rosenfeld.

He was a quarter of a century older than her, but Virginia at that difficult time for the artist became a real salvation for Chagall. No, she did not replace his beloved Bella, and Virginia could not be compared to his only muse. But the young and full of life beauty gave him a son, David, and was able to awaken in the artist the desire to pick up the brushes again. True, they were never officially married, and the son bore the name of the mother's official husband, with whom she had not yet been divorced at that time.

This union fell apart shortly after the family moved to Paris in 1948. Three years later, Virginia simply ran away from the artist, preferring some Belgian photographer Charles Leyrens to him. The windy beauty, for the sake of a new marriage, filed a divorce from her husband, of course, took her son with her. She lived with her second husband in Belgium, and the son of Marc Chagall later became famous as a musician and composer.

Love is the third, the last

Marc Chagall, shocked by the betrayal, even seriously thought about taking his own life, but his daughter came to his aid again. She took care of looking for a friend for her father and persuaded Valentina Brodskaya to become a companion for Chagall at least for a while.

Valentina Brodskaya was a member of Ida's fashion salon, although at that time she herself permanently lived in London, where she maintained her own fashion salon. She was beautiful, businesslike, and young enough to please the artist. He quickly became attached to his new girlfriend, and Vava, as her relatives called her, on July 12, 1952, married Marc Chagall.

After their honeymoon in Greece, the couple settled in the small town of Saint-Paul-de-Vence, not far from Nice. The artist's third wife had a steely character and the grip of a real entrepreneur. She skillfully limited all her husband's contacts with "unnecessary" people, including the artist's children Ida and David, took control of her husband's correspondence and taught him to appreciate his own talent and work. The artist's paintings began to be sold at a very high price, the family's well-being grew, and Chagall himself felt quite happy, admitting that he really liked the prison where he now lives.

The only thing that Valentina Brodskaya could not remove from her husband's life was his love for Bella. She had absolutely no control over his heart and soul. But she could not even complain about the artist's lack of feelings for herself. He really loved her as he had loved Virginia before. But the extraordinary woman was alone in his life, as the gypsy woman once predicted to the young Chagall.

On March 28, 1985, Marc Chagall took the elevator from the first floor to the second. When the elevator stopped, the artist's heart was no longer beating. He died in flight.

None of the famous artists conveyed so simply and accurately that airy, magical feeling of being detached from the earth that appears during falling in love, as one of the most famous representatives of the artistic avant-garde of the twentieth century. Mark Shagal. The artist lived with Bella Rosenfeld for 29 years, until Bella's tragic death. All this time, he did not get tired of confessing his love and dedicating his paintings to her. Bella's image is found in hundreds of Chagall's works.