Olga's Gallery

Marc Chagall (1887-1985) was a Russian-Jewish painter of the 20th Century and one of the best known representatives of the Russian Avant-Garde in the West. Chagall painted in a style all his own, combining elements of Expressionism, Symbolism, Cubism and, to a lesser degree, other Modernist art movements. A prolific and multi-faceted artist, Chagall left behind him thousands of works in many different techniques and media that have established him as one of the foremost artists of the 20th Century. His original name was Moshe or Moishe Shagal; "Moshe" is Hebrew for Moses, while "Shagal" is a variation of the common Jewish surname Segal or Seagal. In his papers, his name was russified by the authorities to Mark Zakharovich Shagalov. The name "Marc Chagall," by which the painter is best known, was adopted when the painter arrived in Paris and combined the "Mark" of his Russian name with the "Shagal" of his original name, and rendered it in the French spelling. Read Marc Chagall's Full Biography