Marc Chagall: The World's Pre-eminent Jewish Artist

Marc Chagall was born on July 7, 1887 in Vitsyebsk, Russia to a poor Jewish family. Chagall began studying painting in 1906 under a local artist, Yehuda Pen.

In 1907, at the age of nineteen, he went to St Petersburg and joined the school of the Society of Art Supporters and was in the tutelage of Nikolai Roerich. Here he witnessed firsthand experimental theatre and the works of great artists including Gauguin, the post impressionist painter.

From 1908 to 1910 he studied at the Zvantseva School of Drawing and Painting under Leon Bakst, the Russian painter and costume designer. As his reputation as a painter began to grow, Chagall left for Paris where he was exposed to modern art and the Cubist movement through the famous artists Robert Delaunay and Pablo Picasso. The sojourn in Paris also enabled him to come into contact with the works of the Fauves, Henri Matisse and André Derain who employed strong and dazzling colours in their paintings. In 1914 he returned to Vitebsk, and married his fiancée Bella Rosenfeld a year later.

At the age of thirty Chagall received recognition as a great artist all over Europe and the United States, and conducted a number of exhibitions. Chagall and Bella with their daughter Ida moved to Paris in 1922, and Chagall became a French citizen in 1937. In 1941, his family moved to the United States to escape the Nazi onslaught during the Second World War. During this period several of his paintings depicted the revulsion against war and the cruelty against Jews.

Marc Chagall ceased painting for nearly a year following the death of Bella in 1944. Later he returned to Europe and was invited by the French Government for painting the ceiling of the Paris Opera House. This initially invited much criticism throughout France, though the work, when completed, attracted much praise even from his critics.

Marc Chagall is renowned for his flamboyant and surrealistic works, which are a combination of myth, fantasy and folklore. Some of the most famous and representative paintings of Chagall include "I and the Village", "Birthday", "The Blue Violinist", " The Bride", "Lovers in Moonlight", " Lovers and Flowers", and "Circus". His themes constitute cheerful memories of childhood, dreams and the love of life. His art is also famous for the symbols and colours used. The commonly employed symbols include workmen, musicians, lovers and animals. The colours are used in an inventive manner and aren't usually related to the object portrayed.

Chagall also showcased his art on mosaics, tapestries, illustrated books, lithographs and stained-glass windows. He was also once given the opportunity to exhibit his works at the Louvre. Marc Chagall died on March 28, 1985 at the age of 97.