Born in 1887 in present-day Belarus, the painter and etcher Marc Chagall became a naturalized Frenchman in 1937 and died in 1985 in Saint-Paul-de-Vence.
Together with Pablo Picasso, Chagall is one of most famous artists of the twentieth century. His work presents characteristics of both surrealism and neoprimitivism.
Fauvism inspired in him pure and clear colours, while from cubism he learned how to deconstruct the object. However, Chagall never adhered fully to a movement or to a school.
His oeuvre developed its own symbolism around his personal life. The themes dear to Chagall were Jewish culture, Russian folklore, popular traditions, love, and dreams. His work features a number of recurrent pictorial elements such as married couples, cockerels, donkeys, the circus, bouquets of flowers, etc.
Marc Chagall's Museum website: http://en.musees-nationaux-alpesmaritimes.fr/chagall/