06.07.1987 – 28.03.1985

July 6, 1887 in Vitebsk was born Movsha Hackelevich Chagall, it was this name at birth was given to the famous artist Marc Chagall. About himself, he said: “If I were not a Jew, as I understand it, I would not be an artist or a very different artist.” Indeed, having lived for almost a hundred years, having changed many countries by the will of fate, he remained, everywhere and under any circumstances, the son of the Jewish people, carefully keeping in the heart of his native Vitebsk, which repeatedly appears on the canvases of the artist.

In 1907, Chagall went to St. Petersburg to continue his artistic education. During several years of his life in the northern capital, he studied at the private school of Seidenberg, worked at the editorial board of the Jewish magazine Voshod, studied for two years with Leo Bakst, visited the class of the innovator Mstislav Dobuzhinsky.

In 1909, during his stay in Vitebsk, Marc Chagall got to know Bella Rosenfeld, the daughter of a local jeweler. The love theme in the work of Chagall is invariably connected with the image of Bella. On the canvases of all periods of his work, including the later (after Bella’s death), in all the depicted women her features are guessed.

In 1911, Marc Chagall moved to Paris, where he lives in the legendary “Hive”, where he works and works fruitfully, studies art, finds his unique artistic handwriting. However, after a successful exhibition in Berlin in 1914, Chagall returned to Russia, the First World War began in Europe. In 1918, the artist receives the post of the Commissioner for Arts in the Vitebsk province, in his native city he creates the Free Academy, which became a major creative center. In 1921 the People’s Committee of the Enlightenment directed Chagall to teach drawing in a colony for street children. The confrontation between the artist and the authorities leads to the departure of Chagall and his family to Paris.

The Second World War will force Chagall to leave Europe, he emigrates to America, but already in 1945, immediately after the liberation of Paris, he returns to his beloved France.

Creativity Chagall beyond time and geography, his paintings are penetratingly lyrical and emotional. The artist created his own world. The world of sparkling colors and sparkling feelings. A world in which ordinary people walk with the same naturalness on the ground and walk through the clouds. A world in which faith, love, fidelity give birth to surprising combinations of shapes, colors and images, give a sense of flight. Until the last days, Chagall continued to paint pictures, make mosaics, stained-glass windows, sculptures, ceramics, and work on decorations for theatrical productions. March 28, 1985 at the 98th year of life, Marc Chagall died in the elevator, rising after a day of work in the studio. In addition to artistic creativity, Chagall throughout his life published poems, essay essays and memoirs.