Marc Chagall (1887-1985) was born Mooshie Shagal. Shagal is a dialectal, northeastern Yiddish variant of the surname, “Segal”. He was born in Vitbsk, Russian Empire, the oldest of nine children in a close-knit Jewish family. His father was a herring merchant.

Chagall began studying painting in 1906. He moved to St. Petersburg in 1907.

This period was difficult for Chagall because Jewish residents at the time could only live in St. Petersburg with a permit, and he was jailed for a brief time. He met his wife, Bella Rosenfeld in 1909 and they lived in Paris in 1923.

With the Nazi occupation of France during World War ll, the deportation of Jews, and the Holocaust, the Chagalls fled Paris. They hid at Villa-Air-Bel in Marseille, and the American journalist Varian Fry assisted their escape from France through Spain and Portugal. In 1941, the Chagalls settled in the United States.

Chagall remarried in 1952 to Valentina Brodsky. He traveled several times to Greece. In 1957, he visited Israel, where in 1960, he created stained glass windows for the synagogue of the Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jersalem and in 1966, wall art for the new parliament being constructed in that city.

During the six day war, the hospital came under severe attack and Chagall’s paintings came under threat. In response to this, Chagall famously wrote a letter from France stating, “I am not worried about the windows, only about the safety of Israel. Let Israel be safe and I will make you lovelier windows”.

deletereply starfishred wrote on Apr 5, ’08, edited on Apr 5, ’08 Lovely I love his windows-I have a cute stories of how we litteraly traveled all over germany,switzerland and france to see all his windows cause my hubby’s aunt Marcie wanted to see them all and she was already 75 and didn’t know if she could come back over to see them a few at a time so my hubby and I took 4 weeks and we started in Germany and ended up in southern France but we had her see them all-of course it was a lovely sight for us too-you ak why we did it well Marcie was like all little jewish patriarchs you just don’t or didn’t say no

editdeletereply lauritasita wrote on Apr 5, ’08 OMG, Heidi, what a trip that must’ve been !!!! Can I go with you if you go again ? (just kidding, LOL!!!) Seriously, though, I believe they have some of his windows at the United Nations in New York. Yeah, his stuff is all over the world ! Aren’t his colors gorgeous ? I love the all blues.

deletereply nemo4sun wrote on Apr 5, ’08 i love the use of color 🙂

deletereply nemo4sun wrote on Apr 5, ’08 wow! star! how cool 🙂

deletereply starfishred wrote on Apr 5, ’08 lauritasita said OMG, Heidi, what a trip that must’ve been !!!! Can I go with you if you go again ? (just kidding, LOL!!!) Seriously, though, I believe they have some of his windows at the United Nations in New York. Yeah, his stuff is all over the world ! Aren’t his colors gorgeous ? I love the all blues. in Zurich and Basel and Nice and Antibe and in Frankfurt, oh it was fun even if she was a pita most of his stuff is in churches or little peace chapels,of course lets do it again okay

editdeletereply lauritasita wrote on Apr 5, ’08 At least his stuff is worth looking at, LOL!!!

deletereply seth360 wrote on Apr 5, ’08, edited on Apr 5, ’08 Excellent blog Lauri, I’ve always loved his work My parents have a lithograph of one of his works have a great weekend

editdeletereply lauritasita wrote on Apr 5, ’08 You have a great weekend too, seth !

deletereply philsgal7759 wrote on Apr 5, ’08 Actually I like that he goes beyond the blues and uses less common colors oranges yellows greens and in shades you don’t normally see. Wonderful

editdeletereply lauritasita wrote on Apr 5, ’08 Yes, i agree with you, Narice, and I love those colors too. Very interesting color combinations.

deletereply jayaramanms wrote on Apr 5, ’08 Stained Glass Art is a great art. In India most of the Churches have these Beautifully painted glass art. When ever i happened to go to any church I stand there and see them minutely. It is really a great art with many colors and seeing them with bright lights on the other side makes wonderful view. You have presented a good and excellent collection of this glass art. Thank you for the same. My entry for this week on Leonardo Da Vinci is available at – –http://jayaramanms.multiply.com/journal/item/110 and the paining album at – http://jayaramanms.multiply.com/photos/album/8/PAINTINGS_OF_LEONARDO_DA_VINCI_- Please visit and see. Thanx

editdeletereply lauritasita wrote on Apr 5, ’08 Thank you for your comment, Jay. I really love the way stained glass catches the sunlight. Really beautiful.

deletereply rajarishi wrote on Apr 6, ’08 thanks for the wonderful collection of photos on glass collection, this is marvelous my participation on a museum at Hyderabad India is linked below http://rajarishi.multiply.com/journal/item/13/Art_Sunday_-_Salar_Jung_Museum_Hyderabad-_014 happy weekend

deletereply asolotraveler wrote on Apr 6, ’08 MY EYES JUST HAD A DELIGHTFUL ORGASM

editdeletereply lauritasita wrote on Apr 6, ’08 asolo, you have an interesting way with words ! It’s always a pleasure to hear from you, LOL!!!

deletereply dawn4 wrote on Apr 6, ’08 The colors are eye catching. I never really thought about it until it was pointed out, you really don’t see too much orange and red in stained glass. These are just beautiful!

editdeletereply lauritasita wrote on Apr 6, ’08 Thanks for your comment, dawn4. Yes, I agree the colors are very eye catching !

deletereply wickedlyinnocent wrote on Apr 8, ’08 I remember commenting on this blog before, or is it déjà vu? Anyway, Chagall’s stained glass are a feast for the eyes, I remember my first contact, in Zurich, truly fabulous works.

editdeletereply lauritasita wrote on Apr 8, ’08 Lina, I have done Chagall stained glass for Art Sunday last year, but I wanted to present it again to attempt to show it more close up. It was very difficult finding images that were impressive to look at blown up.