The life and art of Marc Chagall

Images of flight pervade much of the painter Marc Chagall's work. Some of Chagall's works depict people and objects defying the earth's gravity, hovering over a scene below. These images reflect the earthly and heavenly figures of Chagall's real and idealized life and world, and they offer a window of understanding into the artist's mind and work.

Chagall's Humble Beginnings

Chagall, born in 1887, found inspiration for much of his work in his upbringing in Vitebsk, Belorussia. There, a folktale is told of an artist named Chaim, the son of Isaac Segal (Chagall's family name was Segal before it...