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  he
Russian artist Marc Chagall {shah-gahl'} (also
known as: Mark Zakharovich Shagal), b. July 7, 1887 (or
1889?), d. Mar. 28, 1985, created a genre virtually his
own with his lively, large-scale renderings of Russian
village life, as filtered through the prism of Yiddish
folklore, and his illustrations of folk tales and Bible
stories. Chagall's Jewish heritage and his reliance on
the culture of the shtetl (East European Jewish village)
for his inspiration and subject matter provide a link
between two otherwise separate careers. He was trained
in Saint Petersburg and at an early age came under the
lasting influence of Leon Bakst and the Russian ballet.
Chagall's highly imaginative and very personal style took
shape after he moved (1910) to Paris, where he became
associated with the celebrated school of Paris. His  dreamlike
images had some of the characteristics later associated
with surrealism. I and My Village (1911; Museum of Modern
Art, New York) dates from this period. Chagall returned
to Russia in 1914, and at first welcomed the Russian Revolution
of 1917. He became commissar of fine arts (1918) in his
native Vitebsk and director (1919-20) of the local art
academy. Disagreements with the suprematist Kasimir Malevich,
however, resulted in Chagall's departure for Moscow, where
he designed sets for the Karmerny State Jewish Theater.
His return to Paris in 1923 inaugurated a second career,
not only as a painter with a rich, poetic sense of fantasy
and color, but also as a graphic artist of distinction.
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| Location
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Avenue du Docteur Ménard
Tél : (+33) (0)4 93 53 87 20
Fax : (+33) (0)4 93 53 87 39
Bus n°15, arrêt Chagall |
| Opening
hours : |
10 a.m. to 6 p.m. from July 1st to September 30th
10 a.m. to 5 p.m. from October 1st t June 31st.
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| Closed
on Tuesday and three bank holidays (January
1st, May 1st, December 25th) |
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| Amission
fee : |
6 Euro |
| Student
Concession : |
2,75 Euro |
| Group
concessions : |
2,30 Euro (groups of 15 people or more) |
| Free
entrance for visitors under 18 |
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Guided
tours :
Tel: (+33) (0)4 92 91 50 20 |
The
Bride and Groom of the Eiffel Tower (1939; artist's
collection, Saint-Paul, France) is representative of
this second period, as are his illustrations for La
Fontaine's Fables (commissioned 1925, published 1952)
and for the Bible (commissioned 1930, published 1957);
both projects were commissioned by the renowned Parisian
art dealer Ambroise Vollard. At the suggestion of New
York's Museum of Modern Art, Chagall spent World War
II in the United States, where he again designed for
the ballet, including Stravinsky's Firebird (1945).
Chagall's later work, infused with strong religious
overtones, includes stained-glass windows (1960-61)
for the Hadassah-Hebrew University hospital synagogue
in Jerusalem and mosaics and tapestries (1966) for the
Israeli Knesset. The popular success of his designs
for the dome of the Paris Opera in 1964 led to a commission
(1966) for two enormous murals in the foyer of New York's
Metropolitan Opera House. At the age of 90 Chagall became
the first living artist to be exhibited at the Louvre.
A Chagall museum is located in Nice,
France.
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