Marc Chagall Biography

a.k.a. (Moishe Shagal)  

Born 1887 in Belarus.   Died:  1985 St. Paul de Vence, France

Marc Chagall was born as one of eight children of a Russian-Jewish family in Vitebsk/Belarus. His given name was not Marc, but Moses. In Paris - at that time the Mecca of art - Chagall experienced Fauvism and Cubism. Soon he developed his very own poetic style.

Chagall was already 35 years old when he started with printmaking techniques. At that time he lived in Berlin/Germany with his wife Bella.

In 1923 He received commissions by the art dealer Vollard to illustrate Gogol's book The Dead Souls, La Fontaine's Fables and the Bible.

In 1941 Chagall went into exile from Nazi occupied France to the United States. He had received an invitation by the Museum of Modern Art in New York.    Then in 1944 his wife Bella died.

After a stay in New York; Chagall returned to France in 1947.   Starting his education on the process of making lithographs.