Marc Chagall

(1887-1985)

Was born in Vitebsk and trained (1908) in St Petersburg. Chagall was in Paris 1910-14 and was influenced by Cubism; in 1917, after the Russian Revolution, he became Commissar of Fine Arts in Vitebsk and founded an academy. After disagreements with Malevich, he resigned and worked for theatres in Moscow, returning to Paris in 1923. By then Chagall’s highly imaginative style was fully formed, and he was painting recognizable objects in unusual juxtapositions, floating rather insecurely in space. His color was very rich, and most of his subjects were poetic evocations of Russian-Jewish village life, increasingly religious in sentiment. Chagall’s fantasies influenced the Surrealists. In 1941 he was invited to America by the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and he remained in the US until 1948.

Chagall’s famous oil paintings include:

• To My Wife
• Reclining Nude
• I and the Village
• The Holy Communion
• The Fiddler
• The Promenade
• Peasant
• Equestrienne
• The Wedding Candles