Halfway the month of June I made a little trip to the city of Brussels in Belgium. In the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium was the temporary exhibition of the artist Marc Chagall. More than 200 works, lend from other musea or private collectioners, were present at the exhibition.The exhibition (from 28-02-2015 – until 26-06-2015) was called: ‘Chagall | Retrospective’
A nice short introduction video to the exhibition
Marc Chagall is born in the 19th century (1887) and was a Russian-French artist whose work was quite expressive and sometimes very original in the use of colors and patterns. He had a close connection to the Jewish culture and this is also represented in some of his most famous work. The special thing about this selective exhibition of an artist is that not only his paintings were shown, but also his drawings, sketches and even made costumes. I like to see that too besides paintings. He also painted the famous animals of The Fables of La Fontaine which is really nice to see (and to read). You see the violin, other instruments and the dove coming back in many of his paintings. My favourite paintings are those of the animals, mostly of the birds. Beautiful and how precisely shown.
The biography of Chagall in short (next text is copyrighted to the Royal Museums of the Fine Arts of Belgium (link))
- 1887: Marc Chagall is born into a family of Hasidic Jews in Vitebsk, Belarus, on 7 July
- 1906-1910: Studies in the atelier of Yehuda Pen and then in Saint Petersburg at the atelier of Léon Bakst
- 1911: Journeys to Paris, taking up residence at La Ruche
- 1914: Returns to Vitebsk, staying much longer than planned due to the war
- 1915: Marries Bella Rosenfeld
- 1916: Ida Chagall is born
- 1918-1920: Appointed Commissioner of Fine Arts for the Vitebsk region
- 1920: First orders for sketches and costumes. Transferred to Moscow, where he produces work for the Jewish State Chamber Theatre
- 1922-1923: Leaves Russia for Berlin, where he completes Mein leben, the autobiography begun in 1915-16
- 1923-1930: Returns to Paris. Commissions: The Dead Souls by Gogol, the Fables by La Fontaine, and the Bible
- 1937: Becomes a naturalized French citizen. Nazi regime declares his work “degenerate art”
- 1941: Leaves for the United States
- 1944: Bella Chagall dies
- 1948: Returns to France
- 1952: Marries Valentina Brodsky (Vava)
- 1953-1960: Series of ‘Message biblique’ [Biblical Message] “murals”
- 1959: Designs stained glass windows for the cathedral in Metz
- 1962: Inauguration of the twelve windows of the synagogue at the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem
- 1964: Inauguration of the decorated ceiling of the Opéra Garnier in Paris
- 1967-1977: Involved in projects using stained glass as well as tapestries and mosaics
- 1973: Musée National du Message Biblique Marc Chagall opens in Nice
- 1985: Dies in Saint-Paul-de-Vence
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