"Eve Maudite par Dieu" by Marc Chagall

A key figure of 20th-century art, Marc Chagall worked across multiple mediums, including painting, illustration and costume design. While Chagall’s work is associated with several major artistic currents, from Cubism to Symbolism, and even Fauvism, the artist never adhered to just one style, creating a defining aesthetic that is entirely his own.

Born in Vitebsk, Belorussia, in 1887, Chagall enjoyed drawing since a young age and went on to study painting in the studio of realist portrait painter Jehuda Pen. In 1907, he moved to St Petersburg to study at the Imperial Society for the Protection of Fine Arts for three years, before studying with Léon Bakst at the Svanseva School.

During Chagall’s time there, the motif of the roof violinist began to emerge in his works, particularly in The Dead Man (1908). A year later, Chagall painted My Fiancée With Black Gloves (1909) and began a series of works inspired by his wife-to-be, Bella Rosenfeld, in his signature unrealistic style.