Biography

MARC CHAGALL

Observer of the World

Born Moishe Zakharovich Shagalov (Moishe Segal) in Vitebsk, Belarus (then part of the Russian Empire), Marc Chagall was the eldest of eight children in the close-knit Jewish family formed by his father, a herring merchant and his mother, Feiga-Ita. This period of his life, described as happy though impoverished, appears in references throughout Chagall’s work.

Beginning to study painting in 1906 under famed local artist Yehuda Pen, Chagall moved to St. Petersburg only a few months later in 1907. There he joined the school of the Society of Art Supporters, and studied under Nikolai Roerich, encountering artists of every school and style. From 1908-1910 he studied under Leon Bakst at Zvyagintseva School.