Marc Chagall: A Man in Love

Marc Chagall: A Man in Love

“In our life there is a single color, as on an artist's palette, which provides the meaning of life and art. It is the color of love. “– Marc Chagall

Marc Chagall was a well known Russian artist whose whimsical aesthetics continue to capture the attention of art lovers all around the world. Born during the summer of 1887, Chagall was the eldest of nine children. He lived a modest childhood, his father worked as a herring merchant and his mother sold groceries from their home. He began to show a serious interest art at the age of 13 and eventually relocated to St. Petersburg in 1908 to study at two of Russia’s most prestigious art schools. When Chagall returned home for the summer from his studies abroad in 1909 he met the woman that would forever be in his heart. Bella Rosenfled, having finished studying abroad, came to visit her friend, Teja Brachman, in Chagall’s home town of Vitebsk. In his autobiography, My Life, Chagall reminisces about his first encounter with Bella: “Her silence is mine, her eyes mine. It is as if she knows everything about my childhood, my present, my future, as if she can see right through me.”  They had met through mutual friends in town and became inseparable.  Bella wrote about Chagall shortly after they’d become acquainted, “I was so calm before. I lived in the peace of our house, read books, and avoided people as evil ghosts. But one young man has come and broken the calmness of my days.” Chagall went back to St. Petersburg but often came to visit Bella. In 1910 he moved to Paris to further develop his artistic style however, he missed his fiancé Bella and feared losing so he returned to Russia in 1914. Bella and Marc were married in 1915 and soon had their daughter Ida. He was constantly devoting paintings to Bella as she was often the subject of his work. She was more than his muse, she was his confidant. He deeply valued her opinion and rarely made a decision without consulting her first. They eventually moved to France but were forced to flee the country in 1941 due to the Nazi invasion during world war two. Chagall, Bella, Ida, and her husband arrived in New York City on June 23, 1941. On September 2, 1944, Bella died suddenly due to a viral infection, which went untreated due to the wartime shortage of medicine. Chagall simply stopped working for months. He was heartbroken.  When he did start working again his first pictures were about Bella and the preservation of her memory. In My Life, Chagall recounts “They dig, they shovel, they lift her and carry her off...” he was not ready for her to go and in a way he never let her go.  Though Chagall went on to have other relationships and continued to live his life, Bella was always close to his heart. When speaking of Bella, Chagall states, “I had only to open my bedroom window, and blue air, love, and flowers entered with her”. When looking at Chagall’s work it is very common to find bouquets of flowers. The flowers may be the focus of the piece or just a detail in the background, but it is believed that they are meant to be a representation of Bella’s presence. A story is often told that Chagall would bring Bella fresh flowers form the market once a week during their life together as a way to remind her that she brought flowers and happiness into his life simply with her presence. By continuing to put flowers in his art after her death Chagall had found a way to keep her spirit alive. I believe he said it best himself: “Only love interests me, and I am only in contact with things that revolve around love.” – Marc Chagall, so simply a man in love.

-Megan A. Hansen