Marc Chagall, born in 1887, in Vitebsk, Russia, learned painting in Paris, where he lived from 1910 to 1914, and Saint Petersburg, where he was based between 1915 and 1917.
During World War II, Chagall fled to the United States, where the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), New York, gave him a retrospective in 1946. In 1948 he permanently settled in France. Chagall is distinguished for his surrealistic inventiveness. He is recognized as one of the most significant painters and graphic artists of the 20th century. Chagall's personal and unique imagery is often suffused with exquisite poetic inspiration. His distinctive use of color and form is derived partly from Russian expressionism and was influenced decisively by French cubism. Crystallizing his style early on, he later developed subtle variations.
His numerous works represent characteristically vivid recollections of Russian-Jewish village scenes and incidents in his private life. Marc Chagall's work combines recollection with folklore and fantasy. Biblical themes characterize a series of etchings executed between 1925 and 1939 that illustrate the Old Testament, and the 12 stained-glass windows in the Hadassah Hospital of the Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center in Jerusalem (1962). In 1973 Musée National Message Biblique Marc Chagall (National Museum of the Marc Chagall Biblical Message) was opened in Nice, France, to house hundreds of his biblical works.
Chagall died March 28, 1985, in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France.