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c.1920 (by Pierre Choumoff)

Today is the birthday of Marc Chagall (Marc Zakharovich Chagall; Liozna, near Vitebsk, Russian Empire (present-day Belarus) 6 July [O.S. 24 June] 1887 – 28 March 1985 Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France); artist.  An early modernist, he was associated with several major artistic styles and created works in virtually every artistic medium, including painting, book illustrations, stained glass, stage sets, ceramic, tapestries and fine art prints.  Using the medium of stained glass, he produced windows for the cathedrals of Reims and Metz, windows for the UN, and the Jerusalem Windows in Israel.  He also did large-scale paintings, including part of the ceiling of the Paris Opéra.   “When Matisse dies,” Pablo Picasso remarked in the 1950s, “Chagall will be the only painter left who understands what colour really is”.

Chagall married Bella Rosenfeld.  Before the marriage, Chagall had difficulty convincing Bella’s parents that he would be a suitable husband for their daughter.  They were worried about her marrying a painter from a poor family and wondered how he would support her.  Becoming a successful artist now became a goal and inspiration.  According to once critic, “[T]he euphoric paintings of this time, which show the young couple floating balloon-like over Vitebsk—its wooden buildings faceted in the Delaunay manner—are the most lighthearted of his career”.  His wedding pictures were also a subject he would return to in later years as he thought about this period of his life.  On 2 September 1944, Bella died suddenly due to a virus infection, which was not treated due to the wartime shortage of medicine.  As a result, he stopped all work for many months, and when he did resume painting his first pictures were concerned with preserving Bella’s memory.   After a year of living with his daughter Ida and her husband Michel Gordey, he entered into a romance with Virginia Haggard, daughter of diplomat Sir Godfrey Digby Napier Haggard and great-niece of the author Sir Henry Rider Haggard; their relationship endured seven years.  They had a child together, David McNeil, born 22 June 1946.  Haggard recalled her “seven years of plenty” with Chagall in her book, My Life with Chagall (Robert Hale, 1986).  In April 1952, Virginia Haggard left Chagall for the photographer Charles Leirens; she went on to become a professional photographer herself.  Chagall’s daughter, introduced him to Valentina (Vava) Brodsky, a woman from a similar Russian Jewish background, who had run a successful millinery business in London.  She became his secretary, and after a few months agreed to stay only if Chagall married her.  The marriage took place in July 1952—though six years later, when there was conflict between Ida and Vava, “Marc and Vava divorced and immediately remarried under an agreement more favourable to Vava” (Jean-Paul Crespelle, author of Chagall, l’Amour le Reve et la Vie, quoted in Haggard: My Life with Chagall).

Gallery

Femme dormant avec fleurs

Gli innamorati

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  1911, To My Betrothed, gouache, watercolor, metallic paint, charcoal, and ink on paper, mounted on cardboard, 61 × 44.5 cm, Philadelphia Museum of Art

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  1911, I and the Village, oil on canvas, 192.1 × 151.4 cm, Museum of Modern Art, New York

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  1911, Trois heures et demie (Le poète), Half-Past Three (The Poet) Halb vier Uhr, oil on canvas, 195.9 × 144.8 cm, The Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection, 1950, Philadelphia Museum of Art

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  1911–12, Hommage à Apollinaire, or Adam et Ève (study), gouache, watercolor, ink wash, pen and ink and collage on paper, 21 × 17.5 cm

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  1913, Paris par la fenêtre (Paris Through the Window), oil on canvas, 136 × 141.9 cm, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

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  1913, La femme enceinte (Maternité), oil on canvas, 193 × 116 cm, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam

   

in 1932, photographed by her father Guillermo Kahlo

Today is the birthday of Frida Kahlo (Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo y Calderon; Coyoacán, Mexico City; July 6, 1907 – July 13, 1954 Coyoacán, Mexico City,); painter perhaps best known for her self-portraits.  Kahlo’s life began and ended in Mexico City, in her home, which is known as “La Casa Azul,” the Blue House.  Her work has been celebrated internationally as emblematic of Mexican national and indigenous traditions, and by feminists for its uncompromising depiction of the female experience and form.  Mexican culture and tradition are important in her work, which has been sometimes characterized as naïve art or folk art.  Her work has also been described as surrealist, and in 1938 André Breton, principal initiator of the surrealist movement, described Kahlo’s art as a “ribbon around a bomb”.  Frida rejected the “surrealist” label imposed by Breton, as she argued that her work reflected more of her reality than her dreams.  Kahlo had a volatile marriage with Mexican artist Diego Rivera.  Kahlo suggested, “I paint myself because I am so often alone and because I am the subject I know best.”

Kahlo had always admired Rivera and his work. She first approached him in the Ministry of Public Education, where he had been working on a mural in 1927.  She showed him four of her paintings, and asked whether he considered her gifted.  Rivera was impressed.  After that, he became a frequent welcomed guest at Kahlo’s house.  He gave her many insights about her artwork while still leaving her space to explore herself.  They began an intimate relationship and were married in 1929, despite the disapproval of Kahlo’s mother.  Their marriage was often troubled.  Kahlo and Rivera both had irritable temperaments and numerous extramarital affairs.  The bisexual Kahlo had affairs with both men and women, including Isamu Noguchi and Josephine Baker; Rivera knew of and tolerated her relationships with women, but her relationships with men made him jealous.  For her part, Kahlo was furious when she learned that Rivera had an affair with her younger sister, Cristina.  The couple divorced in November 1939, but remarried in December 1940.  Their second marriage was as troubled as the first. Their living quarters were often separate, although sometimes adjacent.

Kahlo died on July 13, 1954, soon after turning 47, and was cremated according to her wishes.  A few days before her death, she wrote in her diary: “I hope the exit is joyful — and I hope never to return — Frida”.  The official cause of death was given as a pulmonary embolism, although some suspected that she died from an overdose that may or may not have been accidental.  No autopsy was performed.  In his autobiography, Diego Rivera wrote that the day Kahlo died was the most tragic day of his life, and that, too late, he had realized that the most wonderful part of his life had been his love for her.  A pre-Columbian urn holding her ashes is on display in her former home, La Casa Azul (The Blue House), in Coyoacán, which since 1958 has been maintained as a museum housing a number of her works of art and numerous mementos and artifacts from her personal life.

Gallery

The Two Fridas