Marc Chagall

Introduction
Early life and works
Maturity
Late career
Legacy

Quotes References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Images

Marc Chagall stands behind a staircase railing, looking upward, with one of his expressive paintings featuring human figures visible on the wall behind him.

Marc Chagall, wearing a checked jacket and striped tie, looks slightly upward and smiles in this black-and-white portrait.

At a Glance

Marc Chagall summary

Quizzes

Color pastels, colored chalk, colorful chalk. Hompepage blog 2009, arts and entertainment, history and society

Ultimate Art Quiz

Close-up of a palette held by a man. Mixing paint, painting, color mixing.

Artists, Painters, & Architects

Tate Modern extension Switch House, London, England. (Tavatnik, museums). Photo dated 2017.

Can You Match These Lesser-Known Paintings to Their Artists?

"The Birth of Venus," tempera on canvas by Sandro Botticelli, c. 1485; in the Uffizi, Florence.

Who Painted the Most Expensive Paintings in the World?

Related Questions

How did Bella Chagall’s death in 1944 affect Marc Chagall’s paintings?
How did Marc Chagall begin his career as a printmaker?
How did Marc Chagall combine Expressionism and Cubism with his own personal style?
How did Marc Chagall create a dreamlike effect in his paintings?
How did Marc Chagall’s Jewish upbringing influence his art?
How did Paris change Marc Chagall’s use of colour?
How did World War II interrupt Marc Chagall’s Bible illustration project?
How did Yiddish culture and Russian fairy tales influence Marc Chagall’s imagery?
How does I and the Village reflect Marc Chagall’s memories of Vitebsk?
How does I and the Village use Cubist ideas?
How does My Fiancée with Black Gloves show Marc Chagall’s early experiments with colour?
How does White Crucifixion portray the persecution of German Jews under the Nazis?
What Jewish and Christian symbols did Marc Chagall combine in White Crucifixion?
What did Marc Chagall design for Igor Stravinsky’s ballet The Firebird in 1945?
What did Marc Chagall design for the Metropolitan Opera production of The Magic Flute?
What subjects appear in Marc Chagall’s early painting The Dead Man?
What was Marc Chagall’s family life like in Vitebsk?
What was Marc Chagall’s role in Vitebsk after the Russian Revolution of 1917?
When did Marc Chagall begin creating stained-glass windows?
When did the Louvre hold a retrospective exhibition of Marc Chagall’s work?
Where and when was Marc Chagall born?
Where did Marc Chagall hold his first solo exhibition in 1914?
Where did Marc Chagall study art after leaving Vitebsk in 1907?
Where is the Museum of the Marc Chagall Biblical Message located?
Which Marc Chagall paintings memorialize Bella Rosenfeld after her death?
Which artistic movements influenced Marc Chagall during his first years in Paris?
Which artists and writers did Marc Chagall meet at La Ruche in Paris?
Which buildings have stained-glass windows designed by Marc Chagall?
Which local subjects did Marc Chagall paint during World War I?
Which paintings represent Marc Chagall’s first major period in Paris?
Which schools did Marc Chagall attend as a child in Vitebsk?
Who commissioned Marc Chagall’s illustrations for Nikolay Gogol’s Dead Souls?
Who taught Marc Chagall painting in Vitebsk?
Why did Marc Chagall change from colour gouaches to black-and-white etchings for La Fontaine’s Fables?
Why did Marc Chagall leave Russia permanently in 1922?
Why did Marc Chagall leave the Vitebsk art academy?
Why did Marc Chagall move to Paris in 1910?
Why did Marc Chagall travel to Palestine in 1931?
Why was Marc Chagall unable to return to Paris after visiting Vitebsk in 1914?
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Why is Edvard Munch so famous?
What was the tragedy of Edvard Munch?
What is Edvard Munch most known for?
What was the impact of Edvard Munch’s work on modern art?
Why is Albrecht Dürer so famous?
What is Albrecht Dürer known for?
What was Albrecht Dürer’s family like?
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Visual Arts Painting Painters

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External Websites

Grand Valley State University - Artist Marc Chagall (PDF)
Ben Uri Gallery and Museum - Marc Chagall
Musee national Marc Chagall - Biography of Marc Chagall
The Art Story - Biography of Marc Chagall
The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe - Marc Chagall
Artnet - Marc Chagall
Art in Context - Marc Chagall
Official Site of Marc Chagall
CBS News - The Righteous: Rescuing Marc Chagall from the Nazis
Guggenheim - Biography of Marc Chagall

Britannica Websites

Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

Marc Chagall - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

Marc Chagall

Belorussian-born French artist

Written by

Roy Donald McMullen

Art historian. Author of Art, Affluence, and Alienation; The World of Marc Chagall; and others.

Roy Donald McMullen

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

Britannica Editors

Last updated

Oct. 16, 2026 •History

Marc Chagall (born July 7, 1887, Vitebsk, Belorussia, Russian Empire [now in Belarus]—died March 28, 1985, Saint-Paul, Alpes-Maritimes, France) was a Belorussian-born French painter, printmaker, and designer who composed his images based on emotional and poetic associations, rather than on rules of pictorial logic. Predating Surrealism, his early works, such as I and the Village (1911), were among the first expressions of psychic reality in modern art. His works in various media include sets for...

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