Charming all: Marc Chagall 11th sun painter

Marc Chagall grew up in what is now Belarus a the eldest son of a herring merchant carrier. He was actually born Moise Segal and his family was Jewish His childhood was described as happy but poor. It wasn’t always easy for Jewish people at that time. To admit being a Jew could be reason to be beaten and Jewish children weren’t allowed in regular Russian schools or universities. He first went to a Jewish religious schools but when he was 13 his mom bribed a principal to take him into a Russian school.

At first he learned some painting in 1906 from Yehuda Pen but he realised he wanted something else and he moved to St Petersburg where the famous art schools were. He wasn’t supposed to be able to enroll because Jews didnt have the right pasports but he managed to get a temporary passport with the help of a friend and so he got to study in a prestigious art school for 2 years. Chagall had a Jewish friend Bakst that moved to Paris and Chagall followed in 1910. He had also met with Bella Rosenfeld his future wife. He wrote about her: “Her silence is mine, her eyes mine. It is as if she knows everything about my childhood, my present, my future, as if she can see right through me.”^[

In Paris he changed his name to Marc Chagall. He stood out from the other artist there because he used different colors and because of his playful style. Chagall was very happy in Paris and felt really alive and stimulate with sooo much art and culture all around him. He was very productive in Paris. His style was very quirky though. Dreamlike. It had a bunch of strange symbols that only made sense to him. He thought himself it was meaningless to try to analyze it because he claimed to just paint what came to him in an intuitive way.

It often featured animals and flying people. He also likes the circus.

In 1914 he had an exhibition in Berlin that was a huge success. His plan was to go back to Russia and marry his Bella and then relocate to Paris. He had also successful art exhibitions in Moscow and St Petersburg. He did marry Bella but due to the WWI his plans to go to Paris were on hold.

Image ID: 18931 Artist: Chagall, Marc,1887-1985 Imagetitle: Farm and red sun. 1945 Dimensions: 37,5 x 36,2 cm Location: Christie’s Images Ltd Photographer: © Christie’s Images Ltd – ARTOTHEK oeuvre: © VG Bild-Kunst Bonn

In 1923 he moved back to Paris and he took Bella with him. they got a daughter together called Ida. This is a very happy period for Marc Chagall and it shows in his art. Unfortunately Hitler would become the leader in Germany and Hitler is a threat to Marc Chagall for two reasons: obviously his Jewish background but also because Hitler hated modern art. Marc Chagall was able to flee to America with the help of friends. It was weird for him to live in America because he didn’t speak English.

Unfortunately Bella died due to a medicine shortage in 1944. March Chagall was very sad about this and didn’t paint for several months. After the war he send a message to his friends in Paris:

In recent years I have felt unhappy that I couldn’t be with you, my friends. My enemy forced me to take the road of exile. On that tragic road, I lost my wife, the companion of my life, the woman who was my inspiration. I want to say to my friends in France that she joins me in this greeting, she who loved France and French art so faithfully. Her last joy was the liberation of Paris… Now, when Paris is liberated, when the art of France is resurrected, the whole world too will, once and for all, be free of the satanic enemies who wanted to annihilate not just the body but also the soul—the soul, without which there is no life, no artistic creativity

He moved back to France after the war but this time the south of France. He eventually got remarried.