Created for grades 9-12; May be adapted for younger students.

Birth name Moishe Shagal Born 7 July 1887 in Liozna (near Vitebsk,) which was then a part of the Russian Empire (now in Belarus). He Died 28 March 1985 (aged 97). A nationalized French citizen, Chagall is considered a Belarusian-Jewish-French field painter and stained glass artist. His style is considered surrealist and expressionist.

"Only love interests me, and I am only in contact with things I love."

Chagall was born near Vitebsk, located in the northern part of what is today known as Belarus.

Chagall's early paintings are whimsical in nature, reflecting a "dream-like" quality that shows the influence of his early life in Russia. Though his early life was impoverished and marred by religious intollerance common at that time, Chagall's work shows a happiness in his life.

Many of the works Chagall created were based on his life experiences as a Jewish boy in eastern Europe. Klezmer music, popular from the late 17th century through the early 20th century, coincides with the art of Chagall. Traveling bands played at weddings and community celebrations throughout eastern Europe during this period.

After he began studying painting in 1906 under a famed local artist Yehuda Pen, Chagall moved to St. Petersburg some months later, in 1907. There he joined the school of the "Society of Art Supporters" and studied under Nikolai Roerich, encountering artists of every school and style. From 1908-1910 Chagall studied under Leon Bakst at the Zvantseva School of Drawing and Painting.

This a a difficult period for Chagall. At the time, Jewish residents were only allowed to live in St. Petersburg with a permit, and the artist was jailed for a brief period for an infringement of this restriction. Despite this, Chagall remained in St. Petersburg until 1910, and regularly visited his home town where, in 1909, he met his future wife, Bella Rosenfeld.

Chagall became an active participant in the Russian Revolution of 1917. Although the Soviet Ministry of Culture made him a Commissar of Art for the Vitebsk region, where he founded the Vitebsk Museum of Modern Art and an art school, he did not fare well politically under the Soviet system. He and his wife moved to Moscow in 1920 and then back to Paris three years later, in 1923. Chagall became a French citizen in 1937.

After gaining a reputation as an artist, Chagall left St. Petersburg to settle in Paris to be near a burgeoning art community in the France. Here he developed friendships with such avant-garde luminaries as Guillaume Apollinaire, Robert Delaunay, and Fernand Leger. In 1914, he returned to Vitebsk and, a year later, married his fiancee, Bella. While in Russia, World War I erupted and, in 1916, the Chagalls had their first child, a daughter they named Ida. 

With the Nazi occupation of France during World War II and the deportation of Jews, the Chagalls fled Paris, seeking asylum at Villa Air-Bel in Marseille, where the American journalist Varian Fry assisted in their escape from France through Spain and Portugal. In 1941, the Chagalls settled in the United States.

On September 2, 1944, Chagall's beloved Bella, the constant subject of his paintings and companion, died from an illness. Two years later, in 1946, he returned to Europe. By 1949 he was working in Provence, in Southern the southern part of France.

Following Bella's death, Chagall experienced a depression that was only somewhat alleviated when he met Virginia Haggard, with whom he had a son, David (McNeil). At this time, Chagall received financial aid from theatrical commissions and, in his painting, rediscovered a free and vibrant use of color. His works of this period are dedicated to love and the joy of life, with curved, sinuous figures. He also began to work in sculpture, ceramics, and stained glass. 

In 1950 he also began experimenting with graphic media. After meeting with Fernand Mourlot, he often visited Mourlot Studios where he eventually produced close to a thousand different lithographic editions. With the assistance of Chalres Sorlier, a master printer working at Mourlot, he spent 30 years exploring graphic meda that most lends itself to color representation. 

Chagall remarried in 1952 to Valentina Brodsky (whom he called "Vava"). He traveled several times to Greece and in 1957 visited Israel. In 1960, he created stained glass windows for the synagogue of the Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital in Jerusalem and, in 1966, wall art for the new parliament being constructed in Jerusalem.

On March 28, 1985, at the age of 97, Chagall died in Saint-Paul de Vence on the French Riviera. He was buried at the local cemetary.

Additional information and images can be found at the Marc Chagall website: http://www.marcchagall.narod.ru/

Do Jump is a theater performance about the life of Marc Chagall. It whimsically integrates visual arts, dance, and theater, giving the audience a true feel for Chagall's life, intents and beliefs.