Marc Chagall

From July 6, 2025 to June 21, 2026

Marc Chagall (1887 - 1985)
He was born in Vitebsk, Belarus as Moïsche Zakharovitch Chagalov, but spent most of his life in France. His work was much more colorful than that of other Jewish artists such as Jacques Lipchitz and Chaïm Soutine. Chagall's artworks are characterized by a free, imaginative, and dreamlike expression. For the creation of his works, he used a wide range of materials and techniques. His oeuvre consists of drawings, paintings, prints, ceramics, mosaics, and stained glass. In his work, he aimed for the revelation of the inner impulse rather than a deliberate, methodical use of color and/or form. Chagall may be called the greatest color poet of all time. The exhibition mainly focuses on Chagall's themes.

 From his Mother to his women
Like many men, Chagall had an extremely close bond with his mother. Motherhood is therefore a recurring theme for him. He adored his mother, whose name was Feita Ita. He was full of devotion and idealized women in general and his mother in particular. In his ‘own’ women, he also sought a kind of mother figure. At the age of 21, he met Bella Rosenfeld, his muse. His mother died fourteen days before the wedding of Marc and Bella. 
He found this very difficult and wrote: “I always have a heavy feeling in my heart, is it from sleep or from a sudden memory of her day of death, when I visit her grave, my mother’s grave. Here is my soul, here are my paintings, my origin. A sea of suffering, the early gray hairs, eyes, a city full of tears.” He is very sad and in mourning, but at the same time also so happy with Bella. 

From His Wives to Sirens
The marriage continues and they have a daughter, Ida. In 1941, they flee to New York, where Bella passes away in 1944. In 1948, he returns to France. Shortly after Bella’s death, Chagall met the artist Virginia Haggard.

Together with Virginia and their son David, Chagall moved in 1950 to Saint-Paul-de-Vence, a picturesque village on the French Riviera. Around 1952, the relationship with Virginia ended and Chagall met the also Jewish-Russian Valentina ‘Vava’ Brodsky, with whom he took a honeymoon trip to Rome and Greece.

The classical heritage inspired Chagall to the image motif of the Siren, the beautiful nymph or mermaid who exerts an irresistible attraction on men. For him, they were the connection between heaven and earth and the world of water, and mysterious, elusive women whom he liked to depict in his series of lithographs.

The Bible in His Work
Chagall also created a series of lithographs as illustrations for Bible stories, from Isaiah and Jeremiah to Ruth and Moses. He also made twelve windows for the Hadassah Medical Relief Association, representing the twelve tribes of Israel. They depict the blessings Jacob gave to his twelve sons.

Jewish Heritage
Chagall’s background makes his choice of a career as an artist quite remarkable. The poor family he came from belonged to Hasidism, an ultra-Orthodox movement within Judaism. Depicting people was not encouraged. In his 1922 autobiography, Chagall describes that until 1906 he had never seen a painting or drawing. In 1910, he received a scholarship to study in Paris, where he discovered the inspiring works of Cézanne, Monet, Manet, Seurat, Renoir, Van Gogh, and Matisse. During his life, he often had to flee himself. This shaped him into a world citizen. His long life and his wanderlust—from Saint Petersburg, Paris, New York, and London to Amsterdam—made him one of the most influential artists of the 20^th century. He remained married to Vava and active as an artist until his death in 1985. 

On view from Sunday, July 6, 2025, through Sunday, June 21, 2026