Marc Chagall - (1887 - 1985) was born in Vitebsk, Byelorussia to a poor Hassidic family. He was the eldest of nine children and was encouraged to study art by his mother. Chagall studied art in St. Petersburg in 1907 with Leon Bakst. From 1910 to 1914, Chagall lived in Paris, and there absorbed the works of the leading cubist, surrealist, and fauvist painters. It was during this period that Chagall painted some of his most famous paintings of the Jewish shtetl or village, and developed the features that became recognizable trademarks of his art. Chagall was one of the most successful artists of the twentieth century. He created a unique career in virtually every artistic medium, including paintings, book illustrations, stained glass, stage sets, ceramics, tapestries and fine art prints. As a pioneer of modernism and one of the greatest figurative artists of the twentieth century, Marc Chagall achieved fame and fortune, and over the course of a long career created some of the best known paintings of our time.