ARTISTS

Marc Chagall

BIOGRAPHY

Biography

Born in Vitebsk, Russia (current Belarus) in 1887. Raised in a devout Jewish family. Having studied at art schools in Vitebsk and Belarus, he then moved to France in 1910. At La Ruche (The Beehive), an apartment and communal studio in Paris, he mingled with Modigliani and others and became a member of the Ecole de Paris. After five years in Paris, he returned to his hometown, and married Bella in 1915. He stayed for a while after the Russian Revolution of 1917, but gave up hope on Russia and returned to Paris via Berlin in 1923.
During World War II, he fled Nazi persecution and went to the United States in 1941. While in exile, he lost his beloved wife, Bella, in 1944. Following his major retrospective exhibition in Paris in 1947, he moved back to France and settled in Vence in southern France. In 1952, he got remarried to Valentine. In 1964, he completed the ceiling painting of the Paris Opera commissioned by André Malraux. In 1973, the Musée National Marc Chagall opened in Nice. Known as the “painter of love” and the “magician of colors,” he painted many works throughout his life on themes of love, his homeland, and the Bible. He passed away in 1985.

ARTWORKS

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EXHIBITIONS

Henri Matisse Pierre-Auguste Renoir