Artist, Marc Chagall, painting his wife Bella in his Parisian workshop in 1926.
Marc Chagall borrowed elements from numerous artistic movements, including Cubism, Fauvism, Expressionism, and Surrealism, but his work stubbornly refuses to be constrained by just one style. Instead, it pulsates with an imaginative vitality unique to Chagall, making him one of the most recognisable and influential artists of the 20th century.
Chagall is primarily thought of as a painter, but his work spanned many different mediums, including drawing, tapestry, ceramics, stained glass, stage design, and printmaking. It is in fact prints which dominate his market, accounting for 87% of his work sold at auction, where most fetch between £1,000 and £5,000.
Chagall’s long life (he died at 97) was just as fascinating as his work, and as such, it is interesting to know some things about it when considering his art. Read on to discover six things you might not have known about Marc Chagall.
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He Came From A Humble Background
Marc Chagall was born into a Hasidic Jewish family in 1887 in a small settlement near Vitebsk, modern-day Belarus. He was the eldest of nine children, and times were hard, with Chagall describing how his father performed “Hellish work, the work of a galley slave” to provide for his family.
Strict religious rules around the creation of images meant Chagall’s relatives were not thrilled by his choice of career path, with the artist recalling how one particularly pious uncle was “afraid to offer me his hand” as people said his nephew was “a painter.” Despite this, Chagall acknowledged a debt to his family, stating: “If my art played no part in my family’s life, their lives and their achievements greatly influenced my art.”
His Most Expensive Prints Sold For £700,000
Daphnis and Chloe is a series of 42 prints inspired by the 2nd or 3rd century Greek pastoral romance of the same name by Longus. The story of young love overcoming various hurdles appealed to Chagall’s whimsical and romantic sensibilities, and in preparation for the series, he travelled twice to Greece to sketch and immerse himself in the beauty of the landscape.
Daphnis and Chloe is exemplary of Chagall’s technical skill, and the prints are widely-considered to be among his finest lithographs; they account for nine of his 10 most expensive prints sold at auction, and one portfolio set a new record when it was sold by Sotheby’s in June 1992 for £700,000.
Daphnis and Chloe Series sold by Sotheby’s in 1992
He Never Forgot Vitebsk
Though Chagall grew up near Vitebsk, he moved to Paris in 1910 to further his artistic education and develop his style. He could not speak French and was desperately poor (reportedly subsisting on half a herring a day and painting nude to avoid ruining his clothes), but his hunger for art and culture was nourished; he quickly fell in love with the city, which remained hugely important to him throughout his life.
Despite Chagall’s love of Paris, Vitebsk was always in the back of his mind, and it would inspire countless pieces of artwork throughout his long career. As the artist once said, “The soil that had nourished the roots of my art was Vitebsk; but my art needed Paris as much as a tree needs water. I had no other reason for leaving my homeland, and I believe that in my paintings I have always remained true to it.”
Vitebsk, a city in northeast Belarus.
He Had To Flee Nazi Persecution
In 1914, Chagall returned from Paris to Vitebsk so he could marry his fiancée, Bella. Though the couple originally intended to go back to Paris, the First World War and subsequent Bolshevik Revolution put a stop to their plans, and it was only nine years later, in 1923, that they finally managed to leave for France.
They stayed there for many years, and Chagall’s name grew in popularity. But the outbreak of the Second World War and the Nazi invasion and occupation of France disrupted their lives once again. The couple only narrowly escaped in 1941, and they fled to the US, where they lived in New York for several years. Though Chagall was internationally recognised by this point, he never fully settled in America – partly, perhaps, because he never attempted to learn English, claiming: “It took me thirty years to learn bad French. Why should I try to learn English?”
Chagall longed to return to Europe, which he eventually did after the end of World War II. In the post-war years, he was finally able to complete his La Bible series, and he went on to produce some of his best-known lithographs, including Daphnis and Chloe, Cirque, and L’Odyssée.
He Took Inspiration From Many Sources
Chagall’s work has a fantastical, dreamlike quality, with surreal scenes populated by floating figures and whorls of vibrant colour. The inspiration behind his art was hugely varied, as Chagall drew on many sources, including his Jewish heritage, classical texts, his own life and imagination, and even the Bible (which he described as “the greatest source of poetry of all time.”)
This cross-section of influences is one of the reasons Chagall’s work appeals to so many and remains firmly popular in the 21st century; there is something universal about his figures and the stories and emotions they depict, from the young love of Daphnis and Chloe to the enduring appeal of L’Odyssée.
Picasso Admired His Work
Picasso and Chagall were two of the most successful painters of their day, and they maintained a (mostly) friendly professional rivalry. Chagall once joked, “What a genius, that Picasso. It’s a pity he doesn’t paint.” Picasso, meanwhile, made no secret of his admiration for Chagall; he once said: “When Matisse dies, Chagall will be the only painter left who understands what colour really is”. He also once mused: “I don’t know where he gets those images from; he must have an angel in his head.”
