Russia - Paris - Russia 1906-1922
Chagall was born in 1887 in Vitebsk a small Jewish town in Russia. The oldest of eight children Chagall had a conventional Jewish childhood. After finishing his elementary education at the cheder, Chagall was enrolled at the official state school; it is unsure how this happened as Jews were banned from state education. It was here that he took violin, singing and drawing lessons, and learned to speak Russian.
Chagall’s desire to become a painter took him to St Petersburg in 1906 to study art, he eventually gained a residents permit (required by Jews to travel and reside in different areas) and ended up studying under Leon Bakst. Chagall discovered the world of art and a desire to visit Paris, which he eventually did in 1910. Like many other painter at this time Chagall was exposed to the different styles of painting and in particular Cubism. His work matured during this time and he developed an individual style that is unclassifiable, it contained a magical, poetic quality. Chagall started to achieve some success and held numerous exhibitions. He became friends with many of the great painters and poets including Picasso, Apollinaire and Modigliani.
In 1914 he gained a three-month visa to return to Russia, where he hoped to reacquaint himself with Bella Rosenfeld, a young lady he had fallen in love with in 1909. Chagalls three month stay was extended, he became trapped in Russia as the borders closed at the outbreak of the war in 1914. He married Bella in 1915 and had a daughter Ida, in 1916. During the revolution Chagall sided with the Bolsheviks and in 1917 was made Fine Arts Commissar for the Vitebsk region. He founded a modern art school in 1918 and taught along side Malevich and Lissitzky. By the 1920s Chagall had become disillusioned by the dictatorial behaviour of both the government authorities and the Constructivists and returned to Paris in 1922.
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