Born 1887 Liozna, Russian Empire – Died 1985 Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France
Marc Chagall is one of the most oustanding artists. Belorussian-born French painter worked with emotional and poetic associations. Futhermore, he showed spirits and reflections. As he wrote, “cubist undertakings do not resent me at all. Let them eat their square pears on triangular tables to their health. My art does not reason, it is molten lead, the azure of the soul pouring on the canvas”.
Early Life
The parents of the artist dreamed that their son would be an accountant or a clerk. Born in Vitebsk in 1887, he received his primary education at home. As all Jewish boys, Moishe Shagal studied the Torah and the Talmud. However, from the age of 14, he started drawing in the class of the artist Yudel Pan. The master worked in the academic style, especially in the portrait genre. His student, on the contrary, moved towards the avant-garde.
Shortly pictorial experiments of Chagall surprised his professor so much, that he began to study with the young artist for free. Furthermore, soon he invited his talented student to go to St. Petersburg and study there. St. Petersburg of the begining of the century was full of magazines and exhibitions of contemporary Western art. For the inspiration, the artist came in 1909 back to Vitebsk. In 1911, Chagall met State Duma deputy Maxim Vinaver, who helped the artist to go to Paris.
Over the years,
The unique style of the artist developed, obtaining quirky features. In Paris, Chagall saw poetry in everything: “In things and in people – from a simple worker in a blue blouse to sophisticated champions of cubism – there was an impeccable sense of proportion, clarity, form, picturesqueness.” Moreover, Chagall attended classes at several academies at the same time. He studied simultaneously the works of Eugene Delacroix, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin.
However, from the artist’s point of view, “no academy would have given (him) everything that (he) learned while wandering around Paris, looking at exhibitions and museums, looking at shop windows.” He painted and also created lithographies.
In 1973, Marc Chagall visited the USSR. There he held an exhibition of works in the State Tretyakov Gallery. Besides, in 1977, Marc Chagall was awarded France’s highest award, the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor. At the end of the same year, on the occasion of the anniversary of Chagall, the Louvre hosted a personal exhibition of the artist. Chagall died in a mansion in Saint-Paul-de-Vence. He is buried in the local cemetery in Provence.
Despite the fact
That Chaggal was an artist, he was a poet and a writer. In book “My lifу” he described the major influence of the Hasidic culture on his life and art. His clowns and acrobats resemble figures from religious paintings. As Cogniat wrote about the magic art, “Chagall is unrivalled in this ability to give a vivid impression of explosive movement with the simplest use of colors…”.
You can find a selection of his artwork in Kings Gallery.
Kings Gallery is a leading fine art gallery established in Jerusalem in 1995 that strives to collect and sell the highest quality historic and contemporary Israeli and International art.
