One of the most original and imaginative geniuses of twentieth-century art, Marc Chagall (1887-1985) studied painting in his native Russia with the set designer Leon Bakst. Later, while working in Paris, he was strongly affected by the Fauves' brilliant color and the Cubists' new sense of space. From these and other sources, Chagall developed a Romantic and personal naive expression based on themes from Eastern European village life and Russian and Jewish folklore.

Animal and floral motifs, village characters, brides, and pairs of lovers occur often in his imagery. As a fantasy artist and forerunner of Surrealism, Chagall established himself as an important force in twentieth-century art by the sheer power and fertility of his imagination, and by his immense creative output over decades. Much of his work is associated with literature, including his many illustrations for the Bible, the fables of La Fontaine, and Gogol's Dead Souls. In 1945 he designed the acclaimed sets and costumes for Stravinsky's ballet Firebird.

His monumental works include two vast murals for the Metropolitan Opera House in New York (1966), and twelve stained-glass windows representing the Tribes of Israel at the Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center in Jerusalem (1962).