The Chagall Museum

The Russian artist Marc Chagall {shah-gahl'} (also known as: Mark Zakharovich Shagal), b. July 7, 1887 (or 1889?), d. Mar. 28, 1985, created a genre virtually his own with his lively, large-scale renderings of Russian village life, as filtered through the prism of Yiddish folklore, and his illustrations of folk tales and Bible stories. Chagall's Jewish heritage and his reliance on the culture of the shtetl (East European Jewish village) for his inspiration and subject matter provide a link between two otherwise separate careers. He was trained in Saint Petersburg and at an early age came under the lasting influence of Leon Bakst and the Russian ballet. Chagall's highly imaginative and very personal style took shape after he moved (1910) to Paris, where he became associated with the celebrated school of Paris. His dreamlike images had some of the characteristics later associated with surrealism. I and My Village (1911; Museum of Modern Art, New York) dates from this period. Chagall returned to Russia in 1914, and at first welcomed the Russian Revolution of 1917. He became commissar of fine arts (1918) in his native Vitebsk and director (1919-20) of the local art academy. Disagreements with the suprematist Kasimir Malevich, however, resulted in Chagall's departure for Moscow, where he designed sets for the Karmerny State Jewish Theater. His return to Paris in 1923 inaugurated a second career, not only as a painter with a rich, poetic sense of fantasy and color, but also as a graphic artist of distinction.

The Bride and Groom of the Eiffel Tower (1939; artist's collection, Saint-Paul, France) is representative of this second period, as are his illustrations for La Fontaine's Fables (commissioned 1925, published 1952) and for the Bible (commissioned 1930, published 1957); both projects were commissioned by the renowned Parisian art dealer Ambroise Vollard. At the suggestion of New York's Museum of Modern Art, Chagall spent World War II in the United States, where he again designed for the ballet, including Stravinsky's Firebird (1945). Chagall's later work, infused with strong religious overtones, includes stained-glass windows (1960-61) for the Hadassah-Hebrew University hospital synagogue in Jerusalem and mosaics and tapestries (1966) for the Israeli Knesset. The popular success of his designs for the dome of the Paris Opera in 1964 led to a commission (1966) for two enormous murals in the foyer of New York's Metropolitan Opera House. At the age of 90 Chagall became the first living artist to be exhibited at the Louvre.

A Chagall museum is located in Nice, France.
Location : Avenue du Docteur Ménard
Tél : (+33) (0)4 93 53 87 20
Fax : (+33) (0)4 93 53 87 39

Opening hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. from July 1st to September 30th
10 a.m. to 5 p.m. from October 1st t June 31st.
Closed on Tuesday and three bank holidays (January 1st, May 1st, December 25th)

Amission fee: €6
Student Concession: €2,75
Free entrance for visitors under 18
Guided tours:
Tél: (+33) (0)4 92 91 50 20