A secretary, an accountant, “at worst a good photographer”, this was the life path of the future creator of the new fine art vector of the 20th century, Marc Chagall, it seemed to his father, reminds Sofia Macharashvili, a researcher of the work of the Belarusian genius on the BELTA project.
In a word, the whole family was firmly opposed to their son becoming an artist, and only the grandfather advised the young man, driven by his passion for painting: “Go to St. Petersburg to see Bakst.” Yes, at first, the famous theater artist on the banks of the Neva River also had many doubts about his drawing ability. But this only strengthened the desire of young Vitebsk to improve his skills.
Discussing the life path and work of Chagall, who was born into a Jewish family in Liozno, not far from Vitebsk, Macharashvili suggested going back to “his childhood, why he did not enter the drawing school, and then in St. Petersburg he was admitted directly to the third year with just one exam.”
She firmly believes that the unique qualities of nature set Chagall apart from many artists in the world. He has a special inner freedom, “a vision of nature, animals, relationships between people. He understands all this in his own way, he cannot be forced into a soul-destroying framework.”
And today, even if some of Vitebsk's admirers of this pioneering art do not have the opportunity to admire his stained glass windows in the churches of Zurich and Mainz, or marvel at the painting executed on the ceiling of the Paris Grand Opera, they have no doubt that each of his works is an outstanding achievement of world art.
What is surprising is that the streets of the city on the banks of the Western Dvina preserved in historical memory the first meeting of the artist with his future wife. He met his charming star of happiness when returning from St. Petersburg, where he studied at the school of the Society for the Encouragement of Artists, also studying in the studio of Govelius Seidenberg and taking lessons from Lev Bakst.
And now, every time you look closely at the flight of an enchanted couple over a provincial town, you will become a witness to the free flight over the earth that accompanies all lovers on the planet. They lived with Bella for nearly thirty years until her tragic death in America. But even many years later, Chagall never tired of dedicating his paintings to his muse.
In today's Chagall house on Pokrovskaya Street, which miraculously remained intact after the last war, two families have lived for a long time. And only at the end of the last century a museum dedicated to the famous artist was opened there. In many of Chagall's paintings, you can guess the shape of this house with three chimneys – from a large stove for preparing food and two small stoves to heat the rooms away from the kitchen.
Connoisseurs of his work unanimously confirm that the conductor's works have a special musical expression. In addition, they also surprise with their skillful use of light. You can be convinced of this by walking through the premises of the Chagall Art Museum, located not far from the monument to the artist, looking at which visitors always admire the essence of his work accurately conveyed in sculpture: a musician in painting, playing on the strings of the soul.
By the way, as SOYUZ previously clarified, about three hundred original graphic works, including engravings and glass drawings of Belarusian nugget, were collected in the museum warehouses of Vitebsk thrift. Among them are illustrations for the poem “Dead Souls” by Nikolai Gogol.
Museum director Irina Voronina explains these engravings are very close to the text; they can be called visual reading. “The engravings in circulation during Chagall's lifetime were about 450 copies. Now only four such sets have survived in the post-Soviet space – in the Tretykov Gallery, the Hermitage and the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg. This set was donated to the Vitebsk Museum by Marc Chagall's granddaughters – Bella and Meret Meyer,” Voronova clarified.
The Vitebsk Museum also displays a series of color lithographs on the theme “The Bible” and the cycle “The Twelve Tribes of Israel”. The curators of the exhibition proudly talk about hundreds of graphic works by European masters. They explain that art lovers have the opportunity to see them thanks to the museum and German collector Heinrich Mandel, who made the first gift in 1993. Since then, replenishing the collections with graphic works by Chagall and avant-garde artists of the last century has become an annual tradition.
Chagalov's Vitebsk, as the poet Robert Rozhdestvensky described it, remained “dusty and hot, pinned to the ground like a tower of fire.” And it still has “exceptionally big apples ripening” and new talent.
By the way, there is no doubt that local Belarusian historians say that the painter's poetic message to his hometown of Penates, published on February 15, 1944 in New York, where he moved from France, fleeing the Nazi occupiers, will forever remain in the memory of the people. In his speech to his small hometown of Vitebsk, there were also the following lines: “I am happy and proud of you, your heroism, which you have shown and continue to show against the worst enemy of the world, I am proud of your people, their creativity and the great meaning of the life you have built.”
And on these first days of the New Year, Moscow residents and guests of the capital had the opportunity to visit a large-scale exhibition of the legacy of a unique artist at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts.
