Marc Chagall

Marc Chagall was born in Belarus (Russia) in 1998 and was known as a French painter, designer, and printmaker. He used the elements of Symbolism, Fuavism, and Cubismn in his works. His work I and the Village in 1911 expressed psychic reality. Chagall was a modernist and created work in different mediums including plays and ballets, biblical etchings and stained glass windows.
He learned the rudiments of drawing at school and then studied painting in St. Petersburg at the Imperial Society for the Protection of the Arts. One of Chagall work's from this period is The Dead Man in 1908. Chagall moved to Paris in 1910 and was encouraged ti experiment with colors and art and use the innovate tendencies that he had developed in Russia. He staged his first show in 1914 in Berlin with great success. He painted The Fiddler in 1912 and Paris through the Window in 1913.
He married Bella, his fianc?e in Belarus and stayed to paint the local scenes in his artworks. His works The Praying Jews, and Jew in Green (1914) were painted during this time. After his marriage to Bella in 1915 he painted Birthday in 1915 and Double Portrait with a Glass of Wine in 1917. He was appointed commissar for art and founded the Vitebsk Popular Art School. He resigned in 1920 and moved to Moscow and designed stage scenes for the State Jewish Chamber Theater. He moved to Paris in 1923 with his family.
He learned to engrave while in Berlin and created etchings for Dead Souls by Nikolay Gogol. He completed 107 illustrations for Gogol and another 100 gouaches for Jean de La Fontaine. He also printed a series of etchings for the Bible. In 1933 Chagall painted Solitude which portrayed his anxiety over the fate of human kind and Hitler's rising. He spent several years in New York and designed sets for The Firebird in 1945 and Aleko in 1942. In 1944 Bella passed away and Chagall painted her in Around Here, 1945, The Wedding Candles in 1945 and Nocturne in 1945.
Chagall returned to the south of France where he worked on stained glass projects. He died on March 28, 1985 and left behind a huge collection of work. His legacy is as a major Jewish artist and the pioneer of modern art.