Marc Chagall was a painter, illustrator, and designer whose work combined modernist experimentation with deep roots in Jewish folk culture and memory. Born in Vitebsk, Russia, he studied art in Saint Petersburg before moving to Paris in 1910, where he encountered Fauvism, a movement characterized by bold color and expressive brushwork, which he absorbed and transformed into his own lyrical, narrative style. Chagall returned to Russia during World War I, directing the Vitebsk Popular Art School and creating stage designs for the State Jewish Chamber Theater. He resettled in Paris in 1923 and traveled widely, producing paintings, stage sets, and book illustrations. During this period he also began working in lithography, collaborating with master printers in the same tradition as peers like Picasso, producing prints that combined technical mastery with his characteristic dreamlike imagery. He fled to the United States during World War II, and returned to France in 1948, where he completed major commissions, including stained glass for Hadassah University Medical Center and other monumental works.
