A history of the love story between Bella and Marc Chagall
Many
of Chagall’s finest paintings feature Bella, his
wife and muse. The couple first met by coincidence in Vitebsk, Belarus, their
hometown, in the summer of 1909, when he was twenty-two and she was fourteen.
The shock of a love at first sight, which grew to inspire such great works, is
famously recorded in Marc’s memoir My
Life and in Bella’s published notebooks First Encounter.
1887
Marc (Moise) Zakharovich Chagall is born to a working-class Hasidic Jewish family
in Liozna, near Vitebsk in Belarus, then part of the Russian Empire and a city
of 66,000, of which half are Jewish.
1895
Bella Samoylovna Rosenfeld is born in Vitebsk to one of the town’s richest
Jewish families. Her father is a merchant and the family owns three jewellery
shops. Highly educated and musical, she studies history, philosophy, literature
and acting.
1907
In Vitebsk Marc studies painting under Yehuda Pen, a leader of the Jewish
renaissance in Russian and Belarusian art.
1909
Bella and Marc meet and fall in love at first sight. Marc is apprenticed to
Léon Bakst, the revolutionary stage designer and artist.
1910
Marc moves to Paris to develop his work and discovers cubism and futurism. His
friends include Picasso, Delaunay, Leger and Modigliani.
1914
Marc’s first exhibition opens in Berlin. He sends Bella a marriage proposal by
post. Outbreak of World War I.
1915
Bella and Marc reunite and joyfully marry in Vitebsk. They travel to St
Petersburg and start their life together.
1916
Ida, their only child, is born while Marc is away in Paris. Four weeks later he
returns to see his child for the first time.
1918
Vitebsk comes under Soviet control. Marc is offered and declines the post of
Commissioner of Fine Art, and instead sets up his own academy.
1920
The Chagalls move to Moscow, where Marc designs and paints stage décor for the
State Jewish Chamber Theatre. Bella reignites her love for theatre and acting
whilst watching Marc at work.
1922
The family flees the Communist regime in the USSR, emigrating to Lithuania and
then Berlin.
1924
The family moves to rural France and Marc and Bella raise their daughter in the
countryside.
1939
Outbreak of World War II. Vitebsk is immediately occupied by the Nazis and the Jewish
population is eradicated.
1941
Unaware of the Nazi regime’s influence on Vichy France, the couple are arrested
in Marseille. They escape and flee to Lisbon, and then to the United States.
1944
Bella dies from sepsis following a viral infection. Vitebsk is destroyed. Marc
cannot paint for nine months, devoting himself instead to completing Bella’s book
The Burning Lights, a love letter to their
native town.
1945
The war comes to an end and Europe begins to rebuild itself. Perhaps only 118
citizens survive in Vitebsk.
1948
Marc remains in the USA, speaking publicly about events he has witnessed from
afar. Following exhibitions in galleries such as MoMA, he returns to Paris.
1950
Marc settles in Provence and begins working on ceramics and glassware,
designing the windows of Metz Cathedral and the Hadassah Synagogue in
Jerusalem.
1952
Marc marries Valentina Brodsky.
1963
The Prime Minister of France commissions Marc to paint the ceiling of Palais
Garnier in Paris.
1985
Marc dies aged 97 at home in Saint Paul de Vence and is buried in the Catholic
cemetery.
Marc and Bella Chagall in Paris,
in front of the painting ‘The Betrothed’, 1939. © Topfoto
The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk, in production with Kneehigh and Bristol Old Vic, will play in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse from Thursday 16 June - Saturday 2 July. Book tickets.