Movsja Zacharovitsj Sjagal was born in Vitesbk, Belarus (In those days part of Russia) on July 7th 1887. He was part of a jewish family and oldest of nine children. During his childhood he lived in poverty but happy. His father worked in a herring warehouse, and his mother ran a shop where she sold fish, flour, sugar, and spices. The young Chagall attended the heder (Jewish elementary school) and later went to the local public school. After learning the elements of drawing at school he studied painting in the studio of a local realist named Jehuda Pen. In 1907 went to St. Petersburg where he studied under the stage designer Léon Bakst. In 1910 he moved to Paris and changed his name to Marc Chagall. During the break out of the first world war and also the second world war he flee back tot Belarus. But he mainly lived in France during his life.
The dead man 1908
He was a painter who painted on the basis of poetry and emotions. His early works were surrealistic such as "I and the Village (1911)" and were among the first expressions of psychic reality in modern art. His paintings are memories to his childhood in Vitesbk. Like the fiddler that often reappears on his paintings and became inspiration for the musical “Fiddler On The Roof” in 1964. Most used themes were circus, theater, musicians and religion.
I and the Village (1911)
Later works include sets for plays and ballets, etchings illustrating the Bible, and stained-glass windows. In style he balances between expressionism, impressionism and cubism.
Self portrait with seven fingers 1912
The Fiddler 1912
Jew in green 1914
L'Âne musicien à Saint-Paul 1975
Le cheval de cirque 1887-1985
He mastered the difficult art of stained glass in the late 1950's and he designed a number of windows at international locations such as the Cathedral of Metz in France (1958–60), the synagogue of the Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center in Jerusalem (1960–61), the United Nations building in New York (1964), and the Art Institute of Chicago (1977).
Cathedral of Metz, France
He also painted for the Paris Opéra and the New York Metropolitan Opera.
l' Opera, Paris
He died on March 28, 1985, Saint-Paul, Alpes-Maritimes, France.