Today is the anniversary of the birth of the Jewish painter Marc Chagall, born in Vitebsk, Belarus on July 7, 1887 and died in Saint-Paul-de-Vence on March 28, 1985. We offer you five of the artist’s most famous paintings. Belarusian who tell of his artistic and private life and which show how much the characteristic charm of his hometown has influenced his production. Among subjects that recall the youthful experience, deep and total loves, painful realities like that of war, we retrace the artistic path of an immortal painter. Above Vitebsk, 1914
In this work we recognize one of the recurring figures in Chagall’s art: the wandering Jew, represented with the stick and the sack in which he collected what he possesses. The man is fleeing from Vitebsk, the artist’s hometown. As in much of Chagall’s artistic production, the use of a dreamlike and fairytale language tells a real drama: that of the persecution of the Jews in the Tsar’s Russia, a circumstance that conditioned the youth of the Belarusian artist. The Blue Lovers, 1914
Marc meets Bella in 1909 and the spark immediately strikes between the two. He would later describe her as a young woman with ivory skin and large black eyes. Bella begins to live in Marc’s heart and in his paintings, portrayed kissing him affectionately in this 1914 canvas. During the happy years of their engagement, Chagall initiates the cycle of paintings dedicated to love as a poetic revelation. In “Lovers in Blue” Marc and Bella are face to face, immortalized in a moment in which individuals become archetypes, in which feeling and dream come together. Bella pulls her loved one to her and presses a sweet and sure kiss on the side of her lips, holding Marc’s face to her with her fingers buried in his cheeks. With closed eyes, the whiteness of their bodies shines with a moon reflection,The birthday, 1915
Love is also made up of daily gestures and small anniversaries to celebrate. In this painting there is an iconic cross-section of home happiness, the two young people soar in the air. He writhes in an attempt to kiss her, she holds her fragrant flowers in her hand. Everything suggests a surprise, an affectionate gift. The cake is waiting to be cut while, all around, intertwining fabrics, curtains and small objects seem to be silent witnesses of this love. She, in her autobiography of her, will use these words to describe the magical moment and the genesis of the painting: “Don’t move. Stay where you are… “. I still have the flowers in my hands. I don’t know where to put them. I would like to immerse them in water. They could wither. But soon I forget it. War,1943
Chagall paints this picture during the Second World War. The blue of the night of Vitebsk, the painter’s hometown, is suddenly illuminated by the yellow glows of the flames that rise from the houses. The upside-down city falls into disrepair as its buildings collapse, the street is flooded with blood, and a man lies lifeless there. The animals go crazy and overturn the wagons. Desperate escape is the only solution. The tones of the painting are bright and violent, the red seems to widen and extend until it engulfs the canvas, waving the animal in the foreground, usually meek. In this painting he immortalizes the destruction of his beloved city. The walk, 1917-1918
Another famous work by Chagall is “The Walk” one of the most romantic paintings of the twentieth century, capable of giving body and shape to love, a feeling that is difficult to describe without resorting to stereotyped cliches. Chagall tells it with a shocking simplicity. The couple is represented at the end of a picnic. On the ground a tablecloth and a half-empty (or half-full) bottle of wine and at the center of the scene is the artist, firmly planted on the ground holding Bella by the hand as she whirls happily in the air, ethereal and light. It is a happy period in Chagall’s life, he portrays himself with a broad smile on his face and a docile bird in his hand, a sign of the harmony that binds him and his beloved to nature and the world around them.
