Art

Surrealist composition with a dog, figure, cockerel floating above the still life In a cream mount, visible sheet length 19.50cm, height 22.50cm Within a black and silvered moulded ...

Paper Size: 14 x 20 inches ( 35.56 x 50.8 cm ) Image Size: 11.75 x 17.75 inches ( 29.845 x 45.085 cm ) Framed: Yes Condition: A: Mint Additional Details: Signed by Fernand Mour...

"Les saltimbanques" by Marc Chagall is numbered and signed Epreuve d’artiste’ and numbered XXIV/XXV, and is apart from the edition of 50. 76,2 x 53,7 cm. This lithograph from 1969. C...

"La Fleche de Zenon (Zeno's Arrow)" is a color lithograph after the original 1964 painting by Rene Magritte. A gigantic rock levitates over the sea. Waves crash bellow and a crescent moon hangs above. Art: 9.75 x 11.75 in Frame: 20.38 x 22.38 in René-François-Ghislain Magritte was born November 21, 1898, in Lessines, Belgium and died on August 15, 1967 in Brussels. He is one of the most important surrealist artists. Through his art, Magritte creates humor and mystery with juxtapositions and shocking irregularities. Some of his hallmark motifs include the bourgeois “little man,” bowler hats, apples, hidden faces, and contradictory texts. René Magritte’s father was a tailor and his mother was a miller. Tragedy struck Magritte’s life when his mother committed suicide when he was only fourteen. Magritte and his two brothers were thereafter raised by their grandmother. Magritte studied at the Brussels Academy of Fine Arts from 1916 to 1918. After graduating he worked as a wallpaper designer and in advertisement. It was during this period that he married Georgette Berger, whom he had known since they were teenagers. In 1926, René Magritte signed...

Marc CHAGALL Couple with a goat Original stone lithograph (atelier Mourlot) Edition size: 3,000 (plus the signed and numbered edition of 50 with larger margins) Unsigned On light ve...

Le Dur Désir de Durer is an original Modern Rare book and written by Paul Éluard (Saint-Denis, 1895 – Charenton-le-Pont, 1952) and illustrated by Marc Chagall (Lëzna, 1887 – Saint-Pa...

MARC CHAGALL (1887-1985) “Ten Commandments” Original Etching with Water Color numbered 46/100 on the lower left margin,Paper Monogrammed by hand of M...

Artist: Marc Chagall Title: Profile and Red Child Portfolio: Mourlot Lithographe I Medium: Lithograph Year: 1960 Edition: Unnumbered Framed Size: 18 1/2" x 15 1/2" Image Size: 12 1/2...

Marc Chagall Fables : The Rat and the Elephant, 1952 Original etching Printed signature in the plate On Montval vellum 39 x 30 cm (c. 15.5 x 12 in) With COA of the gallery and photo...

Marc Chagall The Mountebanks Artist: Marc Chagall Medium: Original lithograph Title: The Mountebanks Signed: Unsigned Portfolio: 1963 Mourlot Lithographe II Year: 1963 Edition: Unnum...

A very good impression of this lithograph printed in gray and black. Signed and numbered in pencil by Chagall, from an edition of 50.

"Paradis (Paradise), M 232/255" is an original lithograph by Marc Chagall. his original color lithograph was designed for and printed by VERVE for the book “Dessins pour La Bible." I...

Suite Provinciale is an original Modern Rare book ritten by Gustave Coquiot (24 September 1865 – 6 June 1926) and illustrated by Marc Chagall (Lëzna, 1887 – Saint-Paul-de-Vence, 198...

Marc Chagall, Original Lithograh depicting an instant of the Bible. Technique: Original lithograph in colours (Mourlot no. 234) On the reverse: another black and white original litho...

MARC CHAGALL ( 1887- 1985 ) “ Song of the Bow” 1958 from ‘The Bible’ Original Etching with hand-coloring in watercolor. Signed with initials and numbered 17/100 in pencil, published...

Inspiration or L'inspiré - The artist and his wife, self-portrait. This is a self-portrait of the great artist, depicting him as lost in thought before one of his paintings, which is apparently related to his home country Russia, as suggested by the small figure in the lower right of the work. Chagall’s wife Valentina (“Vava”), who was also from Russia, is looking over his shoulder, full of longing. The small surreal elements that are characteristic of Chagall’s paintings are also present here: the silhouettes of the houses that seems to stick out of the painting and a figure with a flute or trombone standing on its head. Chagall Lithographe, Volume II of the catalogue raisonné of Chagall's lithographic work, see Mourlot 398, 1957-1962, Paris 1963, imprinted by Imprimerie Mourlot for the publisher André Sauret. A lithographic plate from the catalog that was published in 10,000 copies. Condition : Excellent Set inside a cream mount bearing brass cartellino Visible sheet size length 23cm, Height 31.50cm In a carved and gilded frame Frame size Length 44cm, Height 55.5cm The reverse with a paper label in Japanese Provenance : Private Collection, purchased with Lovers in Grey

Maternité is an original Modern Rare book written by Marcel Arland (Varennes-sur-Amance, 1899 – Saint-Sauveur-sur-École, 1986) and illustrated by Marc Chagall (Lëzna, 1887 – Saint-Pa...

Artist: Marc Chagall, Russian (1887 - 1985) Title: Chagall Lithographe Volumes I, II, III, IV & Les Affiches de Marc Chagall by Cain, Julien, Fernand Mourlot, Charles Sorlier, Robert...

Rose des Vents is an original Modern Rare book written by Philippe Soupault (Chaville, 1897 - Paris, 1990) and illustrated by Marc Chagall (Lëzna, 1887 – Saint-Paul-de-Vence, 1985...

Troyer is an original Modern Rare book written by David Hofstein (Korostyshiv, 1889 – Mosca, 1952) and illustrated by Marc Chagall (Lëzna, 1887 – Saint-Paul-de-Vence, 1985) in 1922. ...

"La race blanche (The White Race)" is a color lithograph after the original 1937 painting by Rene Magritte. A female figure is made out of a mix of body parts. An eye sits on top of an ear, which is on top of a mouth, then two noses. Two breasts lying on a stomach; two arms come from the breasts. Legs are tucked under the stomach. This figure is on a sand dune next to the ocean. Art: 26.5 x 19.63 in Frame: 40.88 x 33.88 in René-François-Ghislain Magritte was born November 21, 1898, in Lessines, Belgium and died on August 15, 1967 in Brussels. He is one of the most important surrealist artists. Through his art, Magritte creates humor and mystery with juxtapositions and shocking irregularities. Some of his hallmark motifs include the bourgeois “little man,” bowler hats, apples, hidden faces, and contradictory texts. René Magritte’s father was a tailor and his mother was a miller. Tragedy struck Magritte’s life when his mother committed suicide when he was only fourteen. Magritte and his two brothers were thereafter raised by their grandmother. Magritte studied at the Brussels Academy of Fine Arts from 1916 to 1918. After graduating he worked as a wallpaper designer and in advertisement. It was during this period that he married Georgette Berger, whom he had known since they were teenagers. In 1926, René Magritte signed...

This piece is an original lithograph created by Marc Chagall in 1980. It is hand signed and numbered from the edition of 50 on Arches wove paper. This piece was published by Maeght i...

An impression from the book of Marc Chagall's (Russian, 1887-1985) lithographs. Published in 1960 by Éditions André Sauret, Monte-Carlo. From 1960 to 1974 Chagall produced 28 lithogr...

"L'Acrobate Vert - Coverture (The Green Acrobat)" is an original Lithograph made by Marc Chagall for the front cover of Derrière le Miroir #235. It is a geometrical green based carni...

"Frontispiece of "Chagall Lithographe III," M 578" is an original lithograph by Marc Chagall. The verso of this lithograph reads "This work could not have been brought to completion ...

Date: 1957 Lithograph Edition of 6000 Size: 9 x 15.25 in. (22.86 x 38.74 cm) Frame Size: 15.5 x 22 inches Printer: Mourlot Paris Publisher: Maeght, Paris 1957 Reference: Cramer 34: M...

"La Peine Perdue (The Wasted Effort)" is a color lithograph after original 1962 painting by Rene Magritte. Two blue curtains are parted on either side. Two curtain shaped mirrors show a sky and clouds. A ball sits right to the left of the mirrors. Art: 12 x 9.75 in Frame: 22.75 x 20.38 in René-François-Ghislain Magritte was born November 21, 1898, in Lessines, Belgium and died on August 15, 1967 in Brussels. He is one of the most important surrealist artists. Through his art, Magritte creates humor and mystery with juxtapositions and shocking irregularities. Some of his hallmark motifs include the bourgeois “little man,” bowler hats, apples, hidden faces, and contradictory texts. René Magritte’s father was a tailor and his mother was a miller. Tragedy struck Magritte’s life when his mother committed suicide when he was only fourteen. Magritte and his two brothers were thereafter raised by their grandmother. Magritte studied at the Brussels Academy of Fine Arts from 1916 to 1918. After graduating he worked as a wallpaper designer and in advertisement. It was during this period that he married Georgette Berger, whom he had known since they were teenagers. In 1926, René Magritte signed...

Artist: Marc Chagall Title: Ruth Gleaning Portfolio: Drawings for the Bible Medium: Lithograph Year: 1960 Edition: Unnumbered Sheet Size: 14 3/8" x 10 1/...

Marc Chagall - Original Lithograph La Vache Bleue (The Blue Cow) From the unsigned, unnumbered lithograph printed in the literary review XXe Siecle 1967 See Mourlot 488 Dimensions: 32 x 24 cm Publisher: G. di San Lazzaro. Marc Chagall (born in 1887) Marc Chagall was born in Belarus in 1887 and developed an early interest in art. After studying painting, in 1907 he left Russia for Paris, where he lived in an artist colony on the city’s outskirts. Fusing his own personal, dreamlike imagery with hints of the fauvism and cubism popular in France at the time, Chagall created his most lasting work—including I and the Village (1911)—some of which would be featured in the Salon des Indépendants exhibitions. After returning to Vitebsk for a visit in 1914, the outbreak of WWI trapped Chagall in Russia. He returned to France in 1923 but was forced to flee the country and Nazi persecution during WWII. Finding asylum in the U.S., Chagall became involved in set and costume design before returning to France in 1948. In his later years, he experimented with new art forms and was commissioned to produce numerous large-scale works. Chagall died in St.-Paul-de-Vence in 1985. The Village Marc Chagall was born in a small Hassidic community on the outskirts of Vitebsk, Belarus, on July 7, 1887. His father was a fishmonger, and his mother ran a small sundries shop in the village. As a child, Chagall attended the Jewish elementary school, where he studied Hebrew and the Bible, before later attending the Russian public school. He began to learn the fundamentals of drawing during this time, but perhaps more importantly, he absorbed the world around him, storing away the imagery and themes that would feature largely in most of his later work. At age 19 Chagall enrolled at a private, all-Jewish art school and began his formal education in painting, studying briefly with portrait artist Yehuda Pen. However, he left the school after several months, moving to St. Petersburg in 1907 to study at the Imperial Society for the Protection of Fine Arts. The following year, he enrolled at the Svanseva School, studying with set designer Léon Bakst, whose work had been featured in Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. This early experience would prove important to Chagall’s later career as well. Despite this formal instruction, and the widespread popularity of realism in Russia at the time, Chagall was already establishing his own personal style, which featured a more dreamlike unreality and the people, places and imagery that were close to his heart. Some examples from this period are his Window Vitebsk (1908) and My Fianceé with Black Gloves (1909), which pictured Bella Rosenfeld, to whom he had recently become engaged. The Beehive Despite his romance with Bella, in 1911 an allowance from Russian parliament member and art patron Maxim Binaver enabled Chagall to move to Paris, France. After settling briefly in the Montparnasse neighborhood, Chagall moved further afield to an artist colony known as La Ruche (“The Beehive”), where he began to work side by side with abstract painters such as Amedeo Modigliani and Fernand Léger as well as the avant-garde poet Guillaume Apollinaire. At their urging, and under the influence of the wildly popular fauvism and cubism, Chagall lightened his palette and pushed his style ever further from reality. I and the Village (1911) and Homage to Apollinaire (1912) are among his early Parisian works, widely considered to be his most successful and representative period. Though his work stood stylistically apart from his cubist contemporaries, from 1912 to 1914 Chagall exhibited several paintings at the annual Salon des Indépendants exhibition, where works by the likes of Juan Gris, Marcel Duchamp and Robert Delaunay were causing a stir in the Paris art world. Chagall’s popularity began to spread beyond La Ruche, and in May 1914 he traveled to Berlin to help organize his first solo exhibition, at Der Sturm Gallery. Chagall remained in the city until the highly acclaimed show opened that June. He then returned to Vitebsk, unaware of the fateful events to come. War, Peace and Revolution In August 1914 the outbreak of World War I precluded Chagall’s plans to return to Paris. The conflict did little to stem the flow of his creative output, however, instead merely giving him direct access to the childhood scenes so essential to his work, as seen in paintings such as Jew in Green (1914) and Over Vitebsk (1914). His paintings from this period also occasionally featured images of the war’s impact on the region, as with Wounded Soldier (1914) and Marching (1915). But despite the hardships of life during wartime, this would also prove to be a joyful period for Chagall. In July 1915 he married Bella, and she gave birth to a daughter, Ida, the following year. Their appearance in works such as Birthday (1915), Bella and Ida by the Window (1917) and several of his “Lovers” paintings give a glimpse of the island of domestic bliss that was Chagall’s amidst the chaos. To avoid military service and stay with his new family, Chagall took a position as a clerk in the Ministry of War Economy in St. Petersburg. While there he began work on his autobiography and also immersed himself in the local art scene, befriending novelist Boris Pasternak, among others. He also exhibited his work in the city and soon gained considerable recognition. That notoriety would prove important in the aftermath of the 1917 Russian Revolution when he was appointed as the Commissar of Fine Arts in Vitebsk. In his new post, Chagall undertook various projects in the region, including the 1919 founding of the Academy of the Arts. Despite these endeavors, differences among his colleagues eventually disillusioned Chagall. In 1920 he relinquished his position and moved his family to Moscow, the post-revolution capital of Russia. In Moscow, Chagall was soon commissioned to create sets and costumes for various productions at the Moscow State Yiddish Theater, where he would paint a series of murals titled Introduction to the Jewish Theater as well. In 1921, Chagall also found work as a teacher at a school for war orphans. By 1922, however, Chagall found that his art had fallen out of favor, and seeking new horizons he left Russia for good. Flight After a brief stay in Berlin, where he unsuccessfully sought to recover the work exhibited at Der Sturm before the war, Chagall moved his family to Paris in September 1923. Shortly after their arrival, he was commissioned by art dealer and publisher Ambroise Vollard to produce a series of etchings for a new edition of Nikolai Gogol's 1842 novel Dead Souls. Two years later Chagall began work on an illustrated edition of Jean de la Fontaine’s Fables, and in 1930 he created etchings for an illustrated edition of the Old Testament, for which he traveled to Palestine to conduct research. Chagall’s work during this period brought him new success as an artist and enabled him to travel throughout Europe in the 1930s. He also published his autobiography, My Life (1931), and in 1933 received a retrospective at the Kunsthalle in Basel, Switzerland. But at the same time that Chagall’s popularity was spreading, so, too, was the threat of Fascism and Nazism. Singled out during the cultural "cleansing" undertaken by the Nazis in Germany, Chagall’s work was ordered removed from museums throughout the country. Several pieces were subsequently burned, and others were featured in a 1937 exhibition of “degenerate art” held in Munich. Chagall’s angst regarding these troubling events and the persecution of Jews in general can be seen in his 1938 painting White Crucifixion. With the eruption of World War II, Chagall and his family moved to the Loire region before moving farther south to Marseilles following the invasion of France. They found a more certain refuge when, in 1941, Chagall’s name was added by the director of the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York City to a list of artists and intellectuals deemed most at risk from the Nazis’ anti-Jewish campaign. Chagall and his family would be among the more than 2,000 who received visas and escaped this way. Haunted Harbors Arriving in New York City in June 1941, Chagall discovered that he was already a well-known artist there and, despite a language barrier, soon became a part of the exiled European artist community. The following year he was commissioned by choreographer Léonide Massine to design sets and costumes for the ballet Aleko, based on Alexander Pushkin’s “The Gypsies” and set to the music of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. But even as he settled into the safety of his temporary home, Chagall’s thoughts were frequently consumed by the fate befalling the Jews of Europe and the destruction of Russia, as paintings such as The Yellow Crucifixion...

"La Bataille de l'Argonne (The Battle of Argonne)" is a color lithograph after the original 1959 painting by Rene Magritte. The landscape is shrouded by the mist of twilight. A cresc...

Artist: Marc Chagall Title: Rahab and the Spies of Jericho Portfolio: Drawings for the Bible Medium: Lithograph Year: 1960 Edition: Unnumbered Sheet Size: 14 3/8" x 10 1/4" Image Siz...

Artist: Chagall, Marc Title: Isaiah Series: Bible Date: 1956 Medium: Lithograph Unframed Dimensions: 14" x 10.5" Framed Dimensions: 23 1/4 " x 19.5" Signature: Unsigned Editi...

MARC CHAGALL 1887-1985 [Shagal, Mark, Zakharovich, Moses] Vitebsk, Belarus 1887-1985 Saint-Paul-de-Vence, Alpes-Maritimes Title: Then the Boy displayed to the Dervish his Bosom…, f...

"Cover of "Chagall Lithographe IV," (M 729)" an original lithograph by Marc Chagall. It is the original book cover for "Chagall Lithographe IV," catalogue and notes by Charles Sorlie...

"Back Cover of Derrière le Miroir #235, M 946" is an original lithograph by Marc Chagall. This Chagall is a graphic piece, with black lines on a white paper. The main figure is a je...

Hand Signed. Edition of 100 prints (plus 100 not signed). From the series “Les Fables de La Fontaine”, realized by Chagall between 1952 Image Dimensions : 30 x 24 cm Ref. Cramer 2...

Marc Chagall Original Lithograph Double-page spread from the 1974 book "Chagall" by André Pieyre de Mandiargues. Unsigned, edition of approximately 10,000 Published by Maeght 1974 D...

Artist: Marc Chagall Title: Ruth and Boaz Portfolio: Drawings for the Bible Medium: Lithograph Year: 1960 Edition: Unnumbered Frame Size: 22 1/4" x 18 3/4" Sheet Size: 14 3/8" x 10 1...

The Ballet, Frontispiece for the book “Daphnis and Chloe” Lithograph in colors, 1969. Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued from an edition of 10,000. Printed ...

In 1968 several of Chagall's poems were published in the album "Les Poemes" (The Poems). He also illustrated this album, featuring a series of 24 woodcuts. Unsigned. From the edi...

"Les valeurs personnelles (Personal Values)" is a color lithograph after the original 1952 painting by Rene Magritte. This interior scene has objects of various sizes. A comb, match, brush, and glass are bigger than typically larger objects like a queen bed and chest of drawers. The walls are a bright cloudy sky. Art: 19.63 x 4.75 in Frame: 34.13 x 38.88 in René-François-Ghislain Magritte was born November 21, 1898, in Lessines, Belgium and died on August 15, 1967 in Brussels. He is one of the most important surrealist artists. Through his art, Magritte creates humor and mystery with juxtapositions and shocking irregularities. Some of his hallmark motifs include the bourgeois “little man,” bowler hats, apples, hidden faces, and contradictory texts. René Magritte’s father was a tailor and his mother was a miller. Tragedy struck Magritte’s life when his mother committed suicide when he was only fourteen. Magritte and his two brothers were thereafter raised by their grandmother. Magritte studied at the Brussels Academy of Fine Arts from 1916 to 1918. After graduating he worked as a wallpaper designer and in advertisement. It was during this period that he married Georgette Berger, whom he had known since they were teenagers. In 1926, René Magritte signed...

Artist: Marc Chagall Title: Ruth at the Feet of Boaz Portfolio: Drawings for the Bible Medium: Lithograph Year: 1960 Edition: Unnumbered Sheet Size: 1...

"Le Dernier Cri (The Last Word)" is a color lithograph after original 1967 painting by Rene Magritte. A huge leaf levitates in the middle of a mountain view. A fully grown tree is pa...

"Derièrre le Miroir, Couverture: La Peintre devant le Village I (Cover of Dèrriere le Miroir No. 182: The Artist at the Village I) M 603a" is an ...

Artist: Marc Chagall Title: Paradise Portfolio: Drawings for the Bible Medium: Lithograph Date: 1960 Edition: Unnumbered Frame Size: 22 3/4" x 18 3/4" Sheet Size: 14 3/8" x 10 1/4" I...

La Tranchée is a beautiful black and white etching on watermarked BFK Rives paper, realized in 1958 by the artist Marc Chagall (Vitebsk, 1887 - St. Paul de Vence, 1985). This is an ...

Marc Chagall - The Tables of the Law - Original Lithograph 1962 Printed by Mourlot Dimensions: 32.5 x 24.5 cm Publisher: André Sauret, Monte-Carlo Reference: Mourlot n° 365 Unsigned...

Marc Chagall - Summer's Dream - Original Handsigned Lithograph 1983 Printed by Mourlot Dimensions: 48 x 65 cm Handsigned in pencil Justified EA (Epreuve D'artiste, Artist proof) asi...

This artwork Titled "Moses Sees the Sufferings of his People" 1966 from the suite " The Story of Exodus" is an original lithograph on Arches paper ...

Artist: Marc Chagall Title: Adam and Eve are Banished from Paradise Portfolio: Drawings for the Bible Medium: Lithograph Year: 1960 Edition: Unnumbered Sheet Size: 14 3/8" x 10 1/4" ...

Marc Chagall, Original Lithograph depicting an instant of the Bible. Technique: Original lithograph in colours Year: 1956 Sizes: 35,5 x 26 cm / 14" x 10.2" (sheet) Published by: Édit...

Artist: Chagall, Marc Title: Ruth at the Feet of Boaz Series: Bible Date: 1960 Medium: Lithograph Unframed Dimensions: 13 15/16 x 10 7/16 inches...

This beautifully detailed etching from Chagall's 'The Bible' series. Most of the etchings from this series were executed between 1931 and 1939 with the last 2 pieces completed betwee...

Artist: Marc Chagall Title: Tamar, Daughter-in-Law of Judah Portfolio: Drawings for the Bible Medium: Lithograph Date: 1960 Edition: Unnumbered Sheet Size: 14 3/8" x 10 1/4" Image Si...

"Recobntre de Ruth et de Booz (Meeting of Ruth and Boaz) M 247/270" is an original lithograph by Marc Chagall. This original color lithograph was designed for and printed by VERVE fo...

"Sara et Abimelech (Sarah and Abimelech), M 239/262" is an original lithograph by Marc Chagall.This original color lithograph was designed for and ...

In 1968 several of Chagall's poems were published in the album "Les Poemes" (The Poems). He also illustrated this album, featuring a series of 24 woodcuts. Unsigned. From the edi...

Marc Chagall, Lithograph from Verve depicting an instant of the Bible. Technique: Lithograph in colours (Mourlot no. 234) On the reverse: another black and white original lithograph (Mourlot no. 257) Year: 1960 Sizes: 35,5 x 26 cm / 14" x 10.2" (sheet) Published by: Éditions de la Revue Verve, Tériade, Paris Printed by: Atelier Mourlot, Paris Documentation / References: Mourlot, F., Chagall Lithograph [II] 1957-1962, A. Sauret, Monte Carlo 1963, nos. 234 and 257 Marc Chagall (born in 1887) Marc Chagall was born in Belarus in 1887 and developed an early interest in art. After studying painting, in 1907 he left Russia for Paris, where he lived in an artist colony on the city’s outskirts. Fusing his own personal, dreamlike imagery with hints of the fauvism and cubism popular in France at the time, Chagall created his most lasting work—including I and the Village (1911)—some of which would be featured in the Salon des Indépendants exhibitions. After returning to Vitebsk for a visit in 1914, the outbreak of WWI trapped Chagall in Russia. He returned to France in 1923 but was forced to flee the country and Nazi persecution during WWII. Finding asylum in the U.S., Chagall became involved in set and costume design before returning to France in 1948. In his later years, he experimented with new art forms and was commissioned to produce numerous large-scale works. Chagall died in St.-Paul-de-Vence in 1985. The Village Marc Chagall was born in a small Hassidic community on the outskirts of Vitebsk, Belarus, on July 7, 1887. His father was a fishmonger, and his mother ran a small sundries shop in the village. As a child, Chagall attended the Jewish elementary school, where he studied Hebrew and the Bible, before later attending the Russian public school. He began to learn the fundamentals of drawing during this time, but perhaps more importantly, he absorbed the world around him, storing away the imagery and themes that would feature largely in most of his later work. At age 19 Chagall enrolled at a private, all-Jewish art school and began his formal education in painting, studying briefly with portrait artist Yehuda Pen. However, he left the school after several months, moving to St. Petersburg in 1907 to study at the Imperial Society for the Protection of Fine Arts. The following year, he enrolled at the Svanseva School, studying with set designer Léon Bakst, whose work had been featured in Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. This early experience would prove important to Chagall’s later career as well. Despite this formal instruction, and the widespread popularity of realism in Russia at the time, Chagall was already establishing his own personal style, which featured a more dreamlike unreality and the people, places and imagery that were close to his heart. Some examples from this period are his Window Vitebsk (1908) and My Fianceé with Black Gloves (1909), which pictured Bella Rosenfeld, to whom he had recently become engaged. The Beehive Despite his romance with Bella, in 1911 an allowance from Russian parliament member and art patron Maxim Binaver enabled Chagall to move to Paris, France. After settling briefly in the Montparnasse neighborhood, Chagall moved further afield to an artist colony known as La Ruche (“The Beehive”), where he began to work side by side with abstract painters such as Amedeo Modigliani and Fernand Léger as well as the avant-garde poet Guillaume Apollinaire. At their urging, and under the influence of the wildly popular fauvism and cubism, Chagall lightened his palette and pushed his style ever further from reality. I and the Village (1911) and Homage to Apollinaire (1912) are among his early Parisian works, widely considered to be his most successful and representative period. Though his work stood stylistically apart from his cubist contemporaries, from 1912 to 1914 Chagall exhibited several paintings at the annual Salon des Indépendants exhibition, where works by the likes of Juan Gris, Marcel Duchamp and Robert Delaunay were causing a stir in the Paris art world. Chagall’s popularity began to spread beyond La Ruche, and in May 1914 he traveled to Berlin to help organize his first solo exhibition, at Der Sturm Gallery. Chagall remained in the city until the highly acclaimed show opened that June. He then returned to Vitebsk, unaware of the fateful events to come. War, Peace and Revolution In August 1914 the outbreak of World War I precluded Chagall’s plans to return to Paris. The conflict did little to stem the flow of his creative output, however, instead merely giving him direct access to the childhood scenes so essential to his work, as seen in paintings such as Jew in Green (1914) and Over Vitebsk (1914). His paintings from this period also occasionally featured images of the war’s impact on the region, as with Wounded Soldier (1914) and Marching (1915). But despite the hardships of life during wartime, this would also prove to be a joyful period for Chagall. In July 1915 he married Bella, and she gave birth to a daughter, Ida, the following year. Their appearance in works such as Birthday (1915), Bella and Ida by the Window (1917) and several of his “Lovers” paintings give a glimpse of the island of domestic bliss that was Chagall’s amidst the chaos. To avoid military service and stay with his new family, Chagall took a position as a clerk in the Ministry of War Economy in St. Petersburg. While there he began work on his autobiography and also immersed himself in the local art scene, befriending novelist Boris Pasternak, among others. He also exhibited his work in the city and soon gained considerable recognition. That notoriety would prove important in the aftermath of the 1917 Russian Revolution when he was appointed as the Commissar of Fine Arts in Vitebsk. In his new post, Chagall undertook various projects in the region, including the 1919 founding of the Academy of the Arts. Despite these endeavors, differences among his colleagues eventually disillusioned Chagall. In 1920 he relinquished his position and moved his family to Moscow, the post-revolution capital of Russia. In Moscow, Chagall was soon commissioned to create sets and costumes for various productions at the Moscow State Yiddish Theater, where he would paint a series of murals titled Introduction to the Jewish Theater as well. In 1921, Chagall also found work as a teacher at a school for war orphans. By 1922, however, Chagall found that his art had fallen out of favor, and seeking new horizons he left Russia for good. Flight After a brief stay in Berlin, where he unsuccessfully sought to recover the work exhibited at Der Sturm before the war, Chagall moved his family to Paris in September 1923. Shortly after their arrival, he was commissioned by art dealer and publisher Ambroise Vollard to produce a series of etchings for a new edition of Nikolai Gogol's 1842 novel Dead Souls. Two years later Chagall began work on an illustrated edition of Jean de la Fontaine’s Fables, and in 1930 he created etchings for an illustrated edition of the Old Testament, for which he traveled to Palestine to conduct research. Chagall’s work during this period brought him new success as an artist and enabled him to travel throughout Europe in the 1930s. He also published his autobiography, My Life (1931), and in 1933 received a retrospective at the Kunsthalle in Basel, Switzerland. But at the same time that Chagall’s popularity was spreading, so, too, was the threat of Fascism and Nazism. Singled out during the cultural "cleansing" undertaken by the Nazis in Germany, Chagall’s work was ordered removed from museums throughout the country. Several pieces were subsequently burned, and others were featured in a 1937 exhibition of “degenerate art” held in Munich. Chagall’s angst regarding these troubling events and the persecution of Jews in general can be seen in his 1938 painting White Crucifixion. With the eruption of World War II, Chagall and his family moved to the Loire region before moving farther south to Marseilles following the invasion of France. They found a more certain refuge when, in 1941, Chagall’s name was added by the director of the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York City to a list of artists and intellectuals deemed most at risk from the Nazis’ anti-Jewish campaign. Chagall and his family would be among the more than 2,000 who received visas and escaped this way. Haunted Harbors Arriving in New York City in June 1941, Chagall discovered that he was already a well-known artist there and, despite a language barrier, soon became a part of the exiled European artist community. The following year he was commissioned by choreographer Léonide Massine to design sets and costumes for the ballet Aleko, based on Alexander Pushkin’s “The Gypsies” and set to the music of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. But even as he settled into the safety of his temporary home, Chagall’s thoughts were frequently consumed by the fate befalling the Jews of Europe and the destruction of Russia, as paintings such as The Yellow Crucifixion...