The Blue Violinist
I and the Village
Marc Chagall described himself as "a dreamer who never woke up." He painted unusual things like blue cows and floating violinists. His style was different from all of the other modern art of his time.
Chagall was born in the small town of Vitebsk, Russia, to a poor Jewish family. He loved to draw, and convinced his mother to send him to art school when he was a teenager. During this period he was very poor, and would sometimes collapse from lack of food.
Chagall lived most of his life in France except for a brief period during WWII when he escaped to the United States to avoid the Nazi invasion of France. During his career as an artist, he created over 10,000 works. He had some major commissions, including the ceiling of the Paris Opera, murals in the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City, and stained glass windows in the United Nations building.
He liked to hold charcoal pencils in his hand like a little fan when he started a drawing. He would sit in front of a blank canvas, or paper, waiting for an idea to come. Then he would start drawing very fast, and images would appear, as if by magic.
He was still making his unique paintings when he died at the age of 97 in France.
The Blue Violinist painting permission to display courtesy of
© 2016 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris.
I and the Village painting permission to display courtesy of
© 2016 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris.
© The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA / Art Resource, NY
Reproduction, including downloading of Marc Chagall works is prohibited by copyright laws and international conventions without the express written permission of Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
