Biography of Marc Chagall in English. Mark Zakharovich Chagall: paintings and biography

Marc Chagall, along with the avant-garde artists Heinrich Emsen and Hans Richter, was an artist whose genius frightened and repelled. When creating paintings, he was guided solely by instinct: compositional structure, proportions and light and shade were alien to him.

It is extremely difficult for a person lacking imagery of thought to visually perceive the creator’s paintings, because they do not fit into the concept of exemplary painting and are strikingly different from classical works and , where the accuracy of the lines is elevated to the rank of absolute.

Childhood and youth

Movsha Khatskelevich (later Moisei Khatskelevich and Mark Zakharovich) Chagall was born on July 6, 1887 in the Belarusian city of Vitebsk, within the boundaries of Russian Empire, separated for the residence of Jews. The head of the Khatskel family, Mordukhov Chagall, worked as a loader in a herring merchant’s shop. He was a quiet, pious and hard-working man. The artist's mother Feig-Ita was an energetic, sociable and enterprising woman. She ran the household and managed her husband and children.

From the age of five, Movsha, like every Jewish boy, attended cheder ( primary school), where he studied prayers and the Law of God. At the age of 13, Chagall entered the Vitebsk city four-year school. True, studying did not give him much pleasure: at that time Mark was an unremarkable stuttering boy who, due to lack of self-confidence, could not find common language with peers.

Provincial Vitebsk became for the future artist both his first friend, his first love, and his first teacher. Young Moses enthusiastically painted endless genre scenes, which he watched every day from the windows of his house. It is worth noting that the parents had no special illusions about artistic abilities son. The mother repeatedly placed drawings of Moses instead of napkins on the dining table, and the father did not want to hear about his son’s training with the eminent Vitebsk painter Yudel Pan at that time.

The ideal of the Chagall patriarchal family was a son-accountant or, at worst, a son-clerk in the house of a wealthy entrepreneur. Young Moses begged his father for money for a drawing school for a couple of months. When the head of the family got tired of his son’s tearful requests, he threw away the required amount money through the open window. The future grafist had to collect the rubles that had scattered across the dusty pavement in front of the laughing inhabitants.

Studying was difficult for Movsha: he was a promising painter and a poor student. Subsequently, these two contradictory character traits were noted by all people who tried to influence art education Chagall. Already at the age of fifteen, he considered himself an unsurpassed genius and therefore could hardly withstand the comments of his teachers. According to Mark, only a great one could be his mentor. Unfortunately, there were no artists of this level in the small town.

Having saved money, Chagall, without telling his parents, left for St. Petersburg. The capital of the empire seemed to him the promised land. There was the only art academy in Russia, where Moses was going to enter. The harsh truth of life made the necessary adjustments to the young man’s rosy dreams: he failed his first and last official exam. Doors of prestigious educational institution never opened up to the genius. The guy, not used to giving up, entered the Drawing School of the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, headed by Nicholas Roerich. There he studied for 2 months.

In the summer of 1909, despairing of finding his way in art, Chagall returned to Vitebsk. The young man fell into depression. Paintings from this period reflect a dejected inner state unrecognized genius. He was often seen on the bridge over Vitba. It is unknown what these decadent moods could have led to if Chagall had not met the love of his life, Bertha (Bella) Rosenfeld. The meeting with Bella filled his empty vessel of inspiration to the brim. Mark wanted to live and create again.

In the autumn of 1909 he returned to St. Petersburg. To the desire to find a mentor equal to him in talent was added new idea fix: the young man decided to conquer the Northern capital at all costs. Letters of recommendation helped Chagall enter the prestigious drawing school of the eminent philanthropist Zvantseva. Artistic process The educational institution was headed by the painter Lev Bakst.

According to the testimony of Moses' contemporaries, Bakst took him without any complaints. Moreover, it is reliably known that Lev paid for the training of a budding graphic artist. Bakst directly told Movsha that his talent would not take root in Russia. In May 1911, Chagall went to Paris on a scholarship received from Maxim Vinaver, where he continued his studies. In the capital of France, he first began to sign his works with the name Mark.

Painting

Chagall began his artistic biography with the painting “The Dead Man.” In 1909, the works “Portrait of My Bride in Black Gloves” and “Family” were written under the influence of neo-primitivist style. In August 1910, Mark left for Paris. The central works of the Parisian period were “Me and My Village”, “Russia, Donkeys and Others”, “Self-Portrait with Seven Fingers” and “Calvary”. At the same time, he painted the canvases “Snuff” and “Praying Jew,” which made Chagall one of the artistic leaders of the reviving Jewish culture.

In June 1914, his first personal exhibition opened in Berlin, which included almost all the paintings and drawings created in Paris. In the summer of 1914, Mark returned to Vitebsk, where he was caught by the outbreak of the First World War. In 1914–1915, a series of paintings consisting of seventy works was created, based on impressions from nature (portraits, landscapes, genre scenes).

In pre-revolutionary times, epically monumental typical portraits were created (“Newspaper Seller”, “Green Jew”, “Praying Jew”, “Red Jew”), paintings from the “Lovers” cycle (“Blue Lovers”, “Green Lovers”, “Pink” lovers") and genre, portrait, landscape compositions(“Mirror”, “Portrait of Bella in a White Collar”, “Above the City”).

In the early summer of 1922, Chagall went to Berlin to find out about the fate of the works exhibited before the war. In Berlin, the artist learned new printing techniques - etching, drypoint, woodcut. In 1922, he engraved a series of etchings intended to serve as illustrations for his autobiography “My Life” (a folder with engravings “My Life” was published in 1923). The book, translated into French, was published in Paris in 1931. To create a series of illustrations for the novel “ Dead Souls“In 1923, Mark Zakharovich moved to Paris.

In 1927, a series of gouaches “Circus Vollard” appeared with its crazy images of clowns, harlequins and acrobats, which were cross-cutting throughout Chagall’s work. By order of the Minister of Propaganda of Nazi Germany in 1933, the master’s works were publicly burned in Mannheim. The persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany and the premonition of an approaching catastrophe painted Chagall's works in apocalyptic tones. In the pre-war and war years, one of the leading themes of his art was the crucifixion (“White Crucifix”, “Crucified Artist”, “Martyr”, “Yellow Christ”).

Personal life

The first wife of an outstanding artist was the daughter of a jeweler, Bella Rosenfeld. He later wrote: “ Long years her love illuminated everything I did.” Six years after their first meeting, on July 25, 1915, they got married. With the woman who gave him his daughter Ida, Mark lived a long and happy life. True, fate worked out in such a way that the artist outlived his muse: Bella died of sepsis in an American hospital on September 2, 1944. Then, returning after the funeral to the empty house, he put a portrait of Bella, which he had painted back in Russia, on an easel, and asked Ida to throw away all the brushes and paints.

“Artistic mourning” lasted 9 months. Only thanks to the attention and care of his daughter did he return to life. In the summer of 1945, Ida hired a nurse to care for her father. This is how Virginia Haggard appeared in Chagall’s life. A romance broke out between them, which gave Mark a son, David. In 1951, the young lady left Mark for the Belgian photographer Charles Leirens. She took her son and refused 18 works by the artist given to her in different time, leaving only two of his drawings for himself.

Moses again wanted to commit suicide, and in order to distract his father from painful thoughts, Ida brought him together with the owner of a London fashion salon, Valentina Brodskaya. Chagall arranged his marriage with her 4 months after meeting her. The creator’s daughter has regretted this pimping more than once. The stepmother did not allow Chagall’s children and grandchildren to see him, “inspired” him to paint decorative bouquets because they “sold well,” and thoughtlessly spent her husband’s fees. The painter lived with this woman until his death, however, continuing to constantly paint Bella.

Death

The eminent artist died on March 28, 1985 (98 years old). Mark Zakharovich was buried in the local cemetery of the commune of Saint-Paul-de-Vence.

Today, Marc Chagall's works can be seen in galleries in France, the USA, Germany, Russia, Belarus, Switzerland and Israel. The memory of the great artist is also honored in his homeland: a house in Vitebsk, in which for a long time lived as a graphic artist, turned into Chagall's house-museum. Fans of the painter’s work to this day can see with their own eyes the place where the avant-garde artist created his masterpieces.

Works

• "Dream" (1976);
• “A Spoonful of Milk” (1912);
• “Green Lovers” (1917);
• “Russian Wedding” (1909);
• "Purim" (1917);
• "The Musician" (1920);
• “For Vava” (1955);
• “Peasants at the Well” (1981);
• "The Green Jew" (1914);
• "Cattle Dealer" (1912);
• "The Tree of Life" (1948);
• "The Clown and the Fiddler" (1976);
• "Bridges over the Seine" (1954);
• "A couple or Holy family"(1909);
• "Street Performers at Night" (1957);
• "Reverence for the Past" (1944);

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

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 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, came to the fore). Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow). 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. Grotesquely illogical subjects, sharp deformations and surreal-fairy-tale color contrasts of his canvases (“I and the Village”, 1911, Museum contemporary art, NY; "Self-Portrait with Seven Fingers", 1911–1912, City Museum, Amsterdam) have a great influence on the development of surrealism.

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

After October revolution In 1918–1919, Chagall served as commissar of the CPSU (Bolsheviks) of the provincial department of public education in Vitebsk, and decorated 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 of 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.
• Staying in 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("The Bible Message of Marc Chagall")
• 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 biography of the artist on archival matters
• Shishanov V. A. Vitebsk Museum of Modern Art: history of creation and collections. 1918-1941. Minsk: Medisont, 2007. - 144 p.

One of the most famous representatives of avant-garde art in painting, graphic artist, illustrator, set designer, poet, master of applied and monumental art of the twentieth century, Marc Chagall, was born in the city of Vitebsk on June 24, 1887. In the family of a small merchant Zakhar (Khatskel), he was the eldest of ten children. From 1900 to 1905, Mark studied at the First City Four-Class School. Vitebsk artist Yu. M. Pan supervised the first steps of the future painter M. Chagall. Then a whole cascade of events occurred in Mark’s life, and all of them were connected with his move to St. Petersburg.

From 1907 to 1908, Chagall studied at the school of the Public Encouragement of the Arts, while at the same time, throughout 1908, he also attended classes at the school of E.N. Zvyagintseva. The first painting painted by Chagall was the painting “Dead Man” (“Death”) (1908), which is now kept in Paris in National Museum contemporary art. This is followed by “Family” or “Holy Family”, “Portrait of my Bride with Black Gloves” (1909). These canvases were painted in the manner of neo-primitivism. In the autumn of the same 1909, Marc Chagall’s Vitebsk friend, Thea Brakhman, who also studied in St. Petersburg and was so modern girl that she even posed naked for Chagall several times - she introduced the artist to her friend Bella Rosenfeld. According to Chagall himself, barely looking at Bella, he immediately realized that this was his wife. It is her black eyes that look at us from all Chagall’s paintings of that period; she, her marvelous features, are discernible in all the women depicted by the artist. 1st Parisian period.

Paris

In 1911, Marc Chagall received a scholarship and went to Paris to continue his studies there and meet French artists, as well as avant-garde poets. Chagall fell in love with Paris immediately. If even before his departure to France, Chagall’s style of painting had something in common with Van Gogh’s painting, that is, it was very close to expressionism, then in Paris the influence of Fauvism, Futurism and Cubism is already felt in the painter’s work. Among Chagall's acquaintances - famous masters painting and words by A. Modigliani, G. Apollinaire, M. Jacob.

Return

Only in 1914 did the artist leave Paris to go to Vitebsk to see Bella and his family. The First found him there World War, so the artist had to postpone his return to Europe until better times. In 1915, Marc Chagall and Bella Rosenfeld got married, and a year later, in 1916, their daughter Ida was born, who in the future would become a biographer of her famous father. After Marc Chagall was appointed authorized commissioner for arts in the Vitebsk province. In 1920, on the recommendation of A. M. Efros, Chagall went to Moscow to work at the Jewish Chamber Theater. A year later, in 1921, he worked as a teacher in the Moscow region, at the Third International Jewish labor school-colony for street children.

Emigration

In 1922, in Lithuania, in the city of Kaunas, an exhibition of Marc Chagall was organized, which the artist did not fail to take advantage of. Together with his family, he left for Latvia, and from there to Germany. And in the fall of 1923, Ambroise Vollard sent Chagall an invitation to come to Paris, where in 1937 he received French citizenship. Then comes World War II. Chagall could no longer remain in Nazi-occupied France, so he accepted the invitation of the management of the Museum of Modern Art in New York to move to America in 1941. With what joy the artist received the news of the liberation of Paris in 1944! But his joy was short-lived. The artist suffered a deafening grief - his wife Bella died of sepsis in a New York hospital. Only nine months after the funeral, Mark dared to pick up a brush again in order to paint two paintings in memory of his beloved: “Next to Her” and “Wedding Lights.”

When Chagall turned 58, he ventured into a new relationship with a certain Virginia McNeill-Haggard, who was over thirty. They had a son, David McNeill. In 1947, Mark finally returned to Paris. Virginia, three years later, left Chagall, running away from him with a new lover. She took her son with her. In 1952, Chagall married again. His wife was the owner of a London fashion salon, Valentina Brodetskaya. But for the rest of his life, Chagall’s only muse remained his first wife Bella.

In the sixties, Marc Chagall suddenly turned to monumental art: he worked in stained glass, mosaics, ceramics and sculpture. By order of Charles de Gaulle, Mark painted the ceiling of the Paris Grand Opera (1964), and in 1966 he created 2 panels for the Metropolitan Opera in New York. His mosaic “The Four Seasons,” created in 1972, decorates the National Bank building in Chicago. And only in 1973 Chagall was invited to the USSR, where an exhibition of the artist was organized. Marc Chagall died on March 28, 1985. He died at the age of 98 in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, where he was buried. There is still no complete catalog of works greatest artist, his creative legacy is so huge.

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, together with Virginia, Chagall entered new house in northeastern New York State, where their son David was born. And a year later new family the artist 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 orders for monumental painting, illustrations for books, 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 French painting(Picasso took first place, Matisse took second).

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, the Protestant church in Zurich, and the synagogue 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 a lot big 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 to the second floor of his chateau in Saint-Paul-de-Vence. During the ascent, his heart stopped.

Chagall Mark Zakharovich (1887-1985) – artist Jewish origin, who worked in Russia and France. He was engaged in painting, graphics, scenography, and was fond of writing poetry in Yiddish. He is a prominent representative of avant-garde art in the twentieth century.

Childhood and adolescence

Marc Chagall's real name is Moses. He was born on July 6, 1887 on the outskirts of the city of Vitebsk (now it is the Republic of Belarus, and at that time the Vitebsk province belonged to the Russian Empire). He was the first child in the family.

Father, Chagall Khatskel Mordukhovich (Davidovich), worked as a clerk. Mom, Feygi-Ita Mendelevna Chernina, was involved in managing household and raising children. Father and mother were first cousins. Mark had five more younger sisters and a brother.

Mark spent most of his childhood with his grandparents. Elementary education, as was customary among the Jews, he received it at home. At the age of 11, Chagall became a student of the 1st Vitebsk four-year school. Since 1906, he studied painting with the Vitebsk artist Yudel Pan, who ran his own school of fine arts.

Petersburg

Mark really wanted to study further fine arts, he asked his father to give him money to study in St. Petersburg. He tossed 27 rubles to his son, poured himself some tea and, smugly sipping, said that he didn’t have any more and he wouldn’t send him another penny.

In St. Petersburg, Mark began studying at the Drawing School of the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, where he studied for two seasons. This school was led by the Russian artist Nicholas Roerich; Chagall was accepted into the third year without passing exams.

After the Drawing School, he continued to study painting at private school. Two of his Vitebsk friends also studied in St. Petersburg, thanks to them Mark became included in the circle of young intellectuals, poets and artists. Chagall lived very poorly; he had to earn a living day and night by working as a retoucher.

Here in St. Petersburg Chagall wrote his first two famous paintings"Death" and "Birth". And Mark also had his first admirer of creativity - the then famous lawyer and State Duma deputy M. M. Vinaver. He purchased two canvases from the aspiring artist and gave him a scholarship for a trip to Europe.

Paris

So in 1911, with the scholarship he received, Mark was able to travel to Paris, where he became acquainted with the avant-garde work of European poets and artists. Chagall fell in love with this city immediately; he called Paris the second Vitebsk.

During this period, despite the brightness and uniqueness of his work, in Mark’s paintings one can feel thin thread Picasso's influence. Chagall's works began to be exhibited in Paris, and in 1914 his personal exhibition was to take place in Berlin. Before such a significant event in the artist’s life, Mark decided to go on vacation to Vitebsk, especially since his sister was just getting married. He went for three months, but stayed for 10 years; everything was turned upside down by the outbreak of the First World War.

Life in Russia

In 1915, Mark was an employee of the military-industrial committee of St. Petersburg. In 1916 he worked for the Jewish Society for the Encouragement of the Arts. After 1917, Chagall left for Vitebsk, where he was appointed to the post of authorized commissariat for arts affairs in the Vitebsk province.

In 1919, Mark contributed to the opening in Vitebsk art school.

In 1920, the artist moved to Moscow, where he got a job at the Jewish chamber theater. He was an artistic designer, at first Mark painted the walls in the lobby and classrooms, then made sketches stage costumes and scenery.

In 1921, he got a job at a Jewish labor school-colony for street children, which was located in Malakhovka. Mark worked there as a teacher.

All this time he did not stop creating, and from under his brush came the following world-famous canvases:

• "Me and my village";
• "Calvary";
• "Birthday";
• "Walk";
• "Above the city";
• "White Crucifix".

Life abroad

In 1922, Chagall emigrated from Russia with his wife and daughter; first they went to Lithuania, then to Germany. In 1923, the family moved to Paris, where 14 years later the artist was given French citizenship.

During World War II, at the invitation of the American Museum of Modern Art, he left for the United States away from Nazi-occupied France; he returned to Europe only in 1947.

In 1960, the artist was awarded the Erasmus Prize.

From the mid-60s, Chagall became interested in mosaics and stained glass, sculpture, tapestries, and ceramics. He painted the parliament of Jerusalem and the Paris Grand Opera, the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the National Bank in Chicago.

In 1973, Mark came to the USSR, where he visited Moscow and Leningrad, his exhibition took place at the Tretyakov Gallery, and he donated several of his works to the gallery.

In 1977, Chagall received the highest French award, the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor. In the year of Chagall's 90th birthday, an exhibition of his works was held at the Louvre.
Mark died in France on March 28, 1985, where he was buried in the cemetery of the Provençal town of Saint-Paul-de-Vence.

Personal life

In 1909, in Vitebsk, Chagall's friend Thea Brakhman introduced him to her friend Bertha Rosenfeld. From the very first second of meeting him, he realized that this girl was everything to him - his eyes, his soul. He was immediately sure that this was his wife. He affectionately called her Bella, she became his one and only muse. From the day they met, the theme of love occupied a central place in Chagall’s work. Bella's features can be recognized in almost all the women depicted by the artist.

They got married in 1915, and the following year, 1916, their baby Ida was born.

Bella was main love in his life, after her death in 1944, he forbade everyone to talk about her in the past tense, as if she had gone out somewhere and would now return.

Chagall's second wife was Virginia McNeill-Haggard, she gave birth to the artist's son David. But in 1950 they separated.

In 1952, Mark married for the third time. His wife Vava, Valentina Brodskaya, owned a fashion salon in London.