French
Russian-French painter and graphic artist born in Vitebsk, Russia. He studied painting first at Vitebsk (1907), then (1907-10) in St. Petersburg, working part-time as a sign painter. He studied under Leon Bakst, through whom he was introduced to French painting. Lived in Paris from 1910-14 with the trip being financed by a Russian patron. During this time he met Soutine, Modigliani, and the artists related to Cubism. He also began friendships with Delaunay and Apollinaire and exhibited at the Salon des Independants.

In 1914 he made a visit to Berlin and exhibited at the Strum Gallery. He contributed to avant-garde exhibitions in Moscow after returning to Vitebsk at the outbreak of war. He married Bella Rosenfield in 1915 who became the subject of many of his paintings. After the outbreak of the October Revolution in 1917, Chagall was appointed Minister of Fine Arts for Vitebsk. After a disagreement with Malevich he resigned in 1919 and moved to Moscow.

Between 1919 and 1922 he made a number of murals and set designs for the Jewish State Theatre. He made his first etchings in Berlin in 1922 and in 1923 took up an offer from Vollard to illustrate Gogol's Dead Souls. Other illustrations for Vollard included the Bible and La Fontaine. In 1930
Chagall's autobiography Ma Vie was published and he spent most of that decade travelling in Europe and the Middle East.

He was given a major retrospective in Basle in 1933. He moved to America in 1941 and for the next six years he designed many stage sets and costumes for the ballet and opera. In 1947 he returned to Paris and after two years moved to Vence where he lived until 1966. In the early 1950s Chagall produced a number of ceramics and sculptures and from 1955 he worked on the Message Biblique paintings and his Circus series of lithographs. Chagall completed a great number of commissions after 1956 working with stained glass, tapestries, mosaics and murals as well as further threatre designs and illustrations.

He was given major exhibitions in 1959 (Paris, Munich, Hamburg), 1963 (Tokyo), 1967 (Zurich, Cologne), 1968 (New York), 1969-70 (Paris). After returning to France in 1947 Chagall lived there until his death in 1985.

Chagall's work is often autobiographical and shows the influence of his Russian origins and a deep interest in Jewish traditions. His work also pays homage to colour found in the French painting of his youth. His work has a strong narrative content and is both Romantic and lyrical through out. After the 1940s Chagall received growing public recognition and he enjoyed an extremely successful public career.

LIT:
Franz Meyer, Chagall, London and New York 1964
Fernand Mourlot and Charles Sourlier, Catalogue Raisonne, Boston Book and Art Shop, Boston.