Chronology of Marc Chagall

1887
Marc Chagall was born on July 7th in Vitebsk (now Belarus) into a family of Hasidic Jewish merchants.

1906-1910
He joined the studio of the painter Iouri Pen before moving to Saint Petersburg, where he attended the Zvantseva School and the workshop of Léon Bakst.

1911-1914
He arrived in Paris thanks to a scholarship and settled in La Ruche, where he mingled with Avant-garde artists. In 1914, he returned to Russia, thinking he would stay only a few months, but the war forced him to remain.

1915-1917
He married Bella Rosenfeld. The couple settled in Petrograd, where he befriended poets, artists, and literary critics. Their daughter Ida was born in May 1916.

1918-1921
Chagall was appointed Commissioner of Fine Arts for the Vitebsk region.

1922-1923
He definitively left Russia, taking all his works with him, to settle in Berlin.

1923-1927
He returned to Paris and began working with the art dealer Ambroise Vollard on illustrations for Les Âmes Mortes by Gogol (1924-1925), Les Fables de La Fontaine (1926-1928), and then the Bible (1930-1939).

1930-1931
At the invitation of the mayor of Tel Aviv, the Chagall family traveled to Palestine for the first time to find inspiration for the book Bible and to discuss the creation of the Tel Aviv museum.

1933-1938
After Adolf Hitler came to power, one of Chagall’s works was burned during the book burning in Mannheim in 1933.

1941-1944
Thanks to an invitation from the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the help of Varian Fry, he left Europe for the United States.
Bella Chagall passed away in 1944.

1945-1946
The artist met Virginia Haggard, who gave birth to their son David in 1946.
A retrospective was held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, then at the Art Institute of Chicago.

1948
Return to France, settling in Orgeval. Aimé Maeght became his dealer in France. Edition of Les Âmes Mortes by Gogol.
He received the engraving prize at the Venice Biennale.

1949
In October, Chagall rented a house called Le Studio in Vence for a few months.

1950
Chagall settled in the villa Les Collines in Vence with his partner Virginia Haggard. The property, now gone, was located on the Baou des Blancs hillside, on the road from Vence to Saint Jeannet, and included his house, studio, and garden.
The painter began learning ceramics at the Poterie des Remparts in Antibes.

1951
Virginia Haggard left Chagall to follow the photographer Charles Leirens to Brussels.
Chagall worked on the project for the Watergate Theatre in London and created the works La Danse and Le Cirque bleu.

1952
After separating from Virginia, the artist met Valentina (Vava) Brodsky, born in Russia, whom he married on July 12, 1952.
He continued his ceramics research, notably with Serge Ramel in Vence, then with Georges and Suzanne Ramié at the Madoura workshop in Vallauris, which he frequented until 1972.
His interest in volume led him to sculpture in terracotta and marble with stonecutter Lanfranco Lisarelli in Vence.
Edition of Fables by Tériade, a project initiated by Ambroise Vollard in 1926.
Commissioned illustrations for Daphnis et Chloé by Tériade. To be closer to Greek mythology, Chagall made his first trip to Greece.

1953
At the request of Father Couturier, Chagall created his first monumental project for the baptistery of the church Notre-Dame-de-Toute-Grâce on the Assy plateau: a wall ceramic inaugurated in 1957, complemented by two marble bas-reliefs and two stained-glass windows.

1954
Second trip to Greece and Italy (Venice, Ravenna, Florence).

1956
Edition of the Bible by Tériade, a project initiated by Ambroise Vollard in 1930.
Chagall began the series of paintings Le Message Biblique (completed in 1966), initially intended for the main chapel of the Calvary in Vence.
Commissioned stained-glass windows for the Metz Cathedral, the first of which were inaugurated in 1959.

1958
Creation of the first wall mosaic, Le Coq bleu, executed by mosaicists from Ravenna.

1959
Inauguration of the first stained-glass windows of Metz Cathedral after his 1958 meeting with master glassmakers Charles Marq and Brigitte Simon from Reims, for the adaptation of stained-glass designs.

1961
Chagall was named honorary citizen of the city of Vence.

1962
Edition of the book Daphnis et Chloé, illustrated with color lithographs by Tériade.
Inauguration of the twelve stained-glass windows of the synagogue at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem on February 6, after their presentation at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

1963-1965
At André Malraux’s request, he worked on the decoration of the ceiling of the Paris Opera, inaugurated in 1964.
Meeting with Lino Melano, mosaic artist, for the creation of the mosaic Les Amoureux gifted to the Fondation Maeght in Saint-Paul-de-Vence on the occasion of its opening in 1964.
First retrospective of the painter in Japan, in Tokyo and Kyoto.
Chagall worked on the monumental tapestry triptych for the Knesset, the new parliament in Jerusalem.
Inauguration of the stained-glass window La Paix at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

1966
Chagall and Vava left Vence to settle in Saint-Paul-de-Vence in the villa La Colline.
Donation to France of the Message Biblique cycle.
The painter worked on the decoration of two monumental paintings commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera in New York, as well as the sets and costumes for La Flûte enchantée, which premiered in February 1967.

1967-1970
Creation of the mosaic Le Message d’Ulysse for the Faculty of Law in Nice in 1968.
Publication of Le Cirque illustrated with lithographs and published by Tériade.

1973
Inauguration of the national museum Message biblique Marc Chagall in Nice in the presence of André Malraux.

1974-1981
Inauguration of stained-glass windows at the Reims Cathedral, Saint-Etienne Church in Mainz, and the Art Institute of Chicago.
Creation of the mosaic Moïse sauvé des eaux for Vence Cathedral in 1979.

1985
After a final working session with his lithographer friend Charles Sorlier, Marc Chagall passed away in his home on March 28, at the age of 98. He is buried in Saint-Paul-de-Vence.