Vue de la fenêtre à Zaolchie, Marc Chagall, 1915
(View from the window at Zaolchie, Russia)
Marc Chagall, Between War and Peace, Exhibit at Musée du Luxembourg, 2013
Chagall : "Il considère en effet la peinture 'comme une fenêtre à travers laquelle je m'envolerais vers un autre monde'" Painting viewed as a way of taking flight through a window to another world.
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Chagall was born in a Jewish family in Vitebsk, Russia in the 1880's.
He lived different stages of his life in Russia, France, Palestine, New York and finally, back in France.
During his early painting career, Chagall benefitted profoundly from the influence of Cubists and Futurists during his three years in Paris.
"In 1914, Chagall went to the opening of his first exhibition in Berlin and continued his trip by going to Russia to see his family and fiancée, Bella Rosenfeld, but the declaration of war forced him to remain eight long years."
All is far from lost ... Chagall and Bella had their baby, Ida, in 1916. Above, Bella and Ida.
"It was as if she had known me for a long time, as if she knew my whole childhood, my present, my future; as if she were watching over me; I felt that this was my wife ... I entered into a new house and was inseparable from it."
Chagall and his family were able to return to live in France, in 1923 after World War One. In 1931, he voyaged to Palestine, the land of his ancestors. This voyage provoked a series of religious works by Chagall.
detail of Le Rêve, 1927 (the Dream)
"In 1937, the Nazi authorities confiscated Chagall's works held in German public collections and three of his paintings were presented in the Munich exhibition Entartete kunst (Degenerate art)."
In 1941, Chagall and his family escaped to New York, where he would be represented by Pierre Matisse, for the rest of his career. In 1944, as Chagall waited for the end of World War II to return to his beloved France, he was devastated by Bella's sudden death.
In 1949, he finally managed to return to France, where he stayed till his death in 1985. He was almost 100 years old.
La Musique, Marc Chagall, 1920
All Above Images and Quotations taken at and from :
--Chagall, Between War and Peace, Exhibit at Musée du Luxembourg, 2013