Marc Chagall - "artist without borders": Little-known facts from the life and work of an avant-garde artist

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

Life path Marc Chagall (1887-1985) is a whole era, and all the main events that entered the world history of the twentieth century were reflected in the work of this artist. A native of the Belarusian Vitebsk, Marc Chagall was a graphic artist, painter, theater artist, muralist, one of the leaders of the world avant-garde of the 20th century. He created his works in various artistic techniques: easel and monumental painting, illustrations, stage costumes, sculptures, ceramics, stained glass windows, mosaics. The outstanding artist also wrote poetry in Yiddish.

Moisha Segal - a native of Vitebsk

The great-grandfather of Marc Chagall (née Moishe Segal) was the famous Jewish artist Haim Segal, who painted synagogues. The boy was the first child of ten children in the family of Khatskel (Zakhara) and Feiga Chagalls, who were close relatives to each other: cousins. For a long time, the Belarusian town of Liozino was considered the birthplace of the artist. But in fact, he was born on the outskirts of Vitebsk in the Peskovatik area.

On the day in July 1887, when Mark was born, a great fire was raging in the town. The bed, on which Feiga lay with her newborn son, was dragged from place to place in order to save the mother and the baby. Apparently, therefore, throughout his long life, the artist experienced a constant desire to change places. And on his canvases he depicted the fire that spared him in the form of a red rooster.

For knowledge in St. Petersburg with 27 rubles in his pocket

Mark was a diligent student: he received a traditional Jewish education in his hometown and learned the basics of fine arts at the art school of the painter Yudel Pen. In 1906, the young man announced to his father that he was leaving for St. Petersburg to enter the Drawing School. Father, tossing 27 rubles to his son, said:

In St. Petersburg, Mark amazed the members of the selection committee with his works, and was immediately admitted to the 3rd year.

Commissioner for Arts, Vitebsk Province

Two revolutions, one after the other that took place in Russia, brought a new life, which seemed to Mark to be "new antiquity", where the newly born art was supposed to flourish and grow stronger. Chagall, returning to his small homeland, was appointed an authorized commissioner for arts in the Vitebsk province. Lunacharsky himself gave him a mandate.

On January 28, 1919, with the assistance of Marc Chagall, the Vitebsk Art School was opened, which he headed for some time. In those years, being authorized, he even issued decrees on art.

Sculptures and ceramics by Marc Chagall

Chagall's small sculptures are practically unknown to the general public. The master discovered this art form for himself in 1949, when he settled in Vence on the French Riviera. The artist, fascinated by the variety of stones in this land, began to seriously engage in carving. He studied new materials through ceramics and sculpture for thirty years.

About a hundred of his sculptural works of small forms on biblical themes, variations on the theme of relations between a man and a woman are known. Some of them have something in common with the form of depicting prehistoric and medieval art.

Stained glass by Marc Chagall

In the 60s, Chagall gradually switched to monumental art forms: mosaic, stained glass. During these years, commissioned by the Israeli government, he creates unique mosaics for the parliament building in Jerusalem. The success led to impressive orders for the decoration of religious temples with mosaics and stained-glass windows.

Chagall became the only artist in the world whose monumental works were used to decorate religious buildings of several confessions: synagogues, Lutheran churches, Catholic churches - only fifteen buildings in the USA, Europe and Israel.

Chagall's paintings ranked among the most stolen works of art

According to the data compiled by the Art Loss Register, Marc Chagall was included in the rating of the artists whose works are most popular among the thieves of paintings. The demand for his easel painting and graphics in the underworld is second only to Pablo Picasso and Juan Miro in popularity. Stolen are more than five hundred works of the avant-garde artist.

Gypsy prediction

There is a legend that a gypsy woman guessed a long life filled with incredible events in Chagall's childhood, and that he would love one extraordinary woman and two ordinary ones and die in flight. Indeed, the prediction came true. Marc Chagall was married three times.

The first wife is Bella Rosenfeld, the daughter of a Vitebsk jeweler. Chagall married her in 1915. In 1916, they had a daughter, Ida, who later became a biographer and researcher of the artist's work. Bella died of sepsis in September 1944.

The second wife is Virginia McNeill-Haggard, daughter of a former British consul in the United States. From this marriage they had a son, David. In 1950, after moving to France, Virginia, taking her son, fled from Chagall with her lover.

The third wife, whom Marc Chagall married in 1952, is Valentina Brodskaya, "Vava", the owner of a London fashion salon and the daughter of the famous manufacturer and sugar manufacturer Lazar Brodsky.

On March 28, 1985, 98-year-old Chagall got into an elevator to go up to the second floor of his home in Saint-Paul-de-Vence. During the ascent, his heart stopped. And this fortune-teller's prediction also came true.

"… In art, as in life, everything is possible if they are based on Love," said the artist. love for Bella Rosenfeld 29 years long, Marc Chagall carried it through his long life. She remained a Muse until the death of the artist, who refused to speak of her as deceased.