artist/ CHAGALL

RUSSIE / FRANCE

Marc Chagall grew up in Vitebsk, then part of the Russian Empire (now in Belarus), in a modest and deeply religious Jewish family. After studying art in his hometown and later in Saint Petersburg, he arrived in Paris in 1911. His encounter with the avant-garde, Cubism and Fauvism enriched an already highly personal style in which memories of his childhood played an essential role. After returning to Russia during the First World War, he settled again in France in the 1920s and became one of the most distinctive artists associated with the School of Paris. Forced into exile in the United States during the Second World War, he returned to France in 1948 and later settled in the South. A painter, draughtsman, printmaker, ceramicist and stained-glass artist, Chagall developed a deeply poetic body of work that is now represented in major international collections.