Marc Chagall (1887-1985) was a Russian-Jewish painter of the 20th Century and one of the best known representatives of the Russian Avant-Garde in the West. Chagall painted in a style all his own, combining elements of Expressionism, Symbolism, Cubism and, to a lesser degree, other Modernist art movements. A prolific and multi-faceted artist, Chagall left behind him thousands of works in many different techniques and media that have established him as one of the foremost artists of the 20th Century.
Early Life and Formative Period
夏加尔1887年生于俄国西部的小城捷布克斯。他的父亲是一个普通的工人，一心想把儿子培养成一个有学问的拉比。因此，夏加尔16岁以前一直在犹太经学院中学习犹太经典。但他从小就对绘画有特殊的兴趣，并表现出敏锐的观察力。当他母亲注意到这一点后，就果断地让他去学画。在学了几个月后，他发现他的老师不如他画得好，就离开家乡到圣彼得堡去学习。后又去巴黎等地观察，与同行交流，最后终于成为一代大师。他的画主要是表现俄国犹太人的生活，他本人也一直与犹太文化和宗教保持着密切的联系。他说：“如果我还是一个犹太人的话，那么我就决不会成为一个画家，可能成为一个和今天的我完全不同的人……我在生活中的唯一要求不是努力接近伦勃朗、戈莱丁、丁托利克以及其他的世界艺术大师，而是努力接近我父辈和祖辈的精神”。 1985年3月28日，夏加尔在法国滨海阿尔卑斯圣保罗去世。留给世人的是他那充满浓浓的乡愁情结的绘画作品：“即使来到巴黎，我的鞋上仍沾着俄罗斯的泥土；在迢迢千里外的异乡，从我意识里伸出的那只脚使我仍然站在滋养过我的土地上，我不能也无法把俄罗斯的泥土从我的鞋上掸掉。”这就是夏加尔。 夏加尔 [Chagall, Marc] 生平 (1887.7.7,俄罗斯帝国 白俄罗斯 维捷布斯克～1985.3.28,法国 滨海阿尔卑斯省 圣保罗) 绘画与书法, 人物小传 白俄罗斯裔法国画家、版画家和设计师。曾在圣彼得堡学习绘画，1910年来到巴黎发展。曾在独立沙龙展出作品，1914年在马克·夏加尔作品柏林举办个人展。他回家乡探亲访友时，恰好赶上第一次世界大战爆发，然后是布尔什维克革命。他被指派为维捷布斯克的革命艺术学院的院长，但在1923年得以返回巴黎。在巴黎开始从事版画创作，为许多纪念版图书制作了数百幅蚀刻画。1941年他离开巴黎前往纽约，为斯特拉文斯基的芭蕾舞剧《火鸟》设计舞台背景和服装。1948年再度定居法国之后，他为耶路撒冷、巴黎和美国的一些公共建筑制作了不少彩画玻璃窗和壁画。他独特的神话梦幻风格主要取材于犹太人的生活以及白俄罗斯的民间传说和《圣经》。 夏加尔以其梦幻式、奇特的意象且色彩亮丽的帆布油画闻名。 其作品中有两幅为纽约市都市歌剧院设计（1966年）的大型油画。 1910年，夏加尔离开了俄罗斯，告别了贝娜，只身来到巴黎。 弗兰兹·迈耶尔认为，1937—39年画中的“新自然感觉”是夏加尔在那一时期个人事务的安全感不断增强的结果。 夏加尔的作品遵循一种永恒的可以适用于任何时代、任何社会的主题，而且这主题能使人联想到生活本身的持续性。 夏加尔回到俄罗斯以后，因为没有以前的作品用来对照以激发灵感和一较高低，只好再次改弦易辙，专攻肖像画及生活情景画。到1915年，他已能在莫斯科举办首次个人画展； 同年，他与贝娜·罗森菲尔德结婚，这种如胶似膝、恩爱情深的夫妻关系一直延续了30年之久，直到贝娜逝世为止。夏加尔对贝娜的爱情始终是他绘画作品中不断表现的灵感。 在法国，夏加尔重新开始早在1931年就已着手进行的为《圣经》绘制插图的工作，这次是一种崭新的、比较自由的风格。 马克·夏加尔作品——《大英百科全书》 他的风格兼有老练和童稚，并将真实与梦幻融合在色彩的构成中。由于他的国家要求某有一种类型的艺术，他被迫远走他乡，在美国和法国之间来回。夏加尔是个高产画家，作品范围包括绘画，镶嵌画，舞台设计，织锦画等，许多公共建筑物，如巴黎歌剧院及纽约联合国总部等都有他的作品。夏加尔是一位追求天真纯朴，从俄国乡下犹太居民到巴黎的画家。他历经立体派、超现实主义等现代艺术实验与洗礼，发展出独特个人风格，在现代绘画史上占有重要的地位。
Marc Chagall was born in Vitebsk, a city in the north of present-day Belarus, then part of the Russian Empire, in 1887.
His original name was Moshe or Moishe Shagal; "Moshe" is Hebrew for Moses, while "Shagal" is a variation of the common Jewish surname Segal or Seagal. In his papers, his name was russified by the authorities to Mark Zakharovich Shagalov. The name "Marc Chagall," by which the painter is best known, was adopted when the painter arrived in Paris and combined the "Mark" of his Russian name with the "Shagal" of his original name, and rendered it in the French spelling
The Russian Empire had strong discriminatory laws against Jews that banned them from living in central Russia, confining them to the far Western territories of the Empire. There, they were also forbidden from living in the major cities and, simultaneously, prevented from owning land and living in small villages. Effectively, this confined them to the mid-sized towns, called shtetls or mestechki. Vitebsk was a typical example of this. Out of the city's 50,000 residents, over half were Jewish.
Access to education was similarly very limited. State schools accepted only a small number of Jewish students and to become a doctor or a lawyer, a Jewish person required express permission from the government. Life in the shtetls was thus characterized by poverty and a poor level of education, most of which was provided by locally organized Jewish schools.
Marc Chagall's father, Zakhar Chagall, was a trader of pickled herring and, in terms of education and outlook was as far as it is possible to be from the world of art. Chagall's brothers followed in the footsteps of their father, working low-paying, unqualified jobs. Marc's mother, Feige-Ita, was a housewife and, like the rest of the family, had no higher education. However, it was her efforts that broke the boy Chagall free from the world into which he was born and gave him the opportunity to realize his innate talent.
Feige-Ita doted on her son and, after he completed the Cheder, or Jewish elementary school at the local synagogue, she paid a bribe to the local Russian authorities to get her son into a state school, despite the stringent quotas. She also encouraged him to exercise his abilities and he was soon taking lessons in drawing, singing and violin.
Quite soon, Chagall had broadened his understanding of the world to the point where he no longer found the company of his parents and their circle of friends and acquaintances intellectually stimulating. While still in school, Chagall met the established painter Yehuda Pen, after seeing a sign advertising art lessons. Pen recognized the young man's talent and, in 1906, after Chagall graduated from school, he entered Pen's studio as a pupil.
Pen himself had been educated in St. Petersburg and it was doubtless he who planted the idea of visiting the Russian capital in the mind of Chagall. This was difficult. In order to travel into central Russia and especially the capital, Jews were required to have special permission. But Chagall persevered and, in 1907, together with his friend Victor Mekler, he obtained the necessary paperwork.
In St. Petersburg, he enrolled in the school run by the Society for Promotion of Artists, where he studied under Nikolas Roerich, and his technique improved rapidly. A year later, in 1908, he transferred to the renowned Art School of Ekaterina Zvantseva, where he studied under Leon Bakst. One of his earliest works is Young Girl on a Sofa (1907), a portrait of his sister Mariaska, in which the painter's touch is still raw and unrefined. Rapid improvement is seen through the works of the period: Red Nude Sitting Up (1908), Self-Portrait with Brushes (1909), Russian Wedding (1909) and, at last, Birth (1910). The latter two works are heavily inspired by Chagall's early life in Vitebsk. He would return to this theme often and nostalgically throughout his career although shtetl life for him was, by this point, a thing of the past.
In 1909, while on a visit to Vitebsk, Chagall met Bella Rosenfeld, the charming and educated daughter of a Jewish jeweler. Though Bella was only 14 at the time, the two fell in love immediately. Their relationship would last 35 years and remained close and loving until the moment of Bella's untimely death.
For the moment, however, Chagall could do nothing. He was a penniless painter and Bella was, in any case, little more than a child. He returned to St. Petersburg.
Throughout the 19th and early 20th Centuries, Paris had been considered the cultural and artistic heart of Europe, to which the nascent national art movements of Northern, Central and Eastern turned to as their model. No painter's education was considered complete without a visit to the metropolis, much as earlier painters had flocked to Venice, Rome and Florence. Furthermore, in the first decade of the 20th Century, there was growing interest within the Parisian beau-monde for the culture of Russia, which seemed to them excitingly exotic.
Paris was what Chagall set his sights on, with the encouragement and advice of his friends and teachers. In 1910, the Russian-Jewish lawyer Maxim Winawer (Vinaver) agreed to sponsor the young painter's trip to the French capital.
agall died in 1985, in the town of Saint-Paul of Vence. Although he remained an adherent of Judaism to his death, his wife Valentina had him buried in a Catholic cemetery, under a gravestone made in the shape of a cross. At the insistence of Ida Chagall, the Kaddish, the Jewish mourning prayer, was recited at the end of the ceremony.
Biography by Yuri Mataev
Marc Chagall at Artprice. To look at auction records, find Chagall's works in upcoming auctions, check price levels and indexes for his works, read his biography and view his signature, access the Artprice database.
Marc Chagall by Jacob Baal-Teshuva. Taschen, 2006.
Marc Chagall: The Lost Jewish World by Benjamin Harshav. Rizzoli, 2006.
Chagall: A Retrospective by Marc Chagall, Jacob Baal-Teshuva. Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, 1995.
Marc Chagall and His Times: A Documentary Narrative (Contraversions: Jews and Other Differen) by Benjamin Harshav. Stanford University Press, 2003.