Marc Chagall  (French/Russian, 1887-1985) 

The prolific artistic career of Marc Chagall (French/Russian, 1887-1985) spanned over seven decades. Influenced by Cubism and Fauvism, Chagall's oeuvre is consistent in his use of figuration and color. Born in Russia in 1887, Chagall moved to France in 1910, and became an integral member of the Ecole de Paris. He participated in the Salon des Indépendants and the Salon d’Automne in 1912. His first solo show was held in 1914 at Der Sturm gallery in Berlin. During a visit to Russia in 1914, Chagall met and later married Bella Rosenfeld, who came to be the subject of many of his paintings, such as Bella with White Collar (1917). Chagall and Rosenfeld were forestalled from returning to Paris because of the outbreak of war. They settled in Vitebsk—Chagall's hometown—where he was appointed Commissar for Art in 1918, and founded the Vitebsk Popular Art School, of which he remained the director until his resignation 1920.

In 1923, Chagall moved back to Paris and notably formed a friendship with dealer Ambroise Vollard, who commissioned Chagall to draw and paint multiple religious scenes from the Old Testament, and similar sources. In addition to Chagall's Jewish-themed works, such as Green Violinist (1923–1924) and Dancing Mirjam (1931), he often drew inspiration from the Christian Bible. During World War II, Chagall fled to the United States, where he had a retrospective at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, in 1946. He returned to France in 1948 and permanently settled there, yet he would continue to travel for commissions and pleasure throughout the rest of his life. Alongside painting, printmaking, and a myriad of other mediums, Chagall is known for his stained glass windows, like those at the synagogue of the Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem (installed in 1962), and the memorial window Peace (installed in 1964) for the United Nations. A major retrospective of his work was held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1985; Chagall died the same year at the age of 97 in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France.