Editing Marc Chagall (section)

===Russia (1914–1922)===
Because he missed his fiancée, Bella, who was still in Vitebsk—"He thought about her day and night", writes Baal-Teshuva—and was afraid of losing her, Chagall decided to accept an invitation from a noted art dealer in Berlin to exhibit his work, his intention being to continue on to Belarus, marry Bella, and then return with her to Paris. Chagall took 40 canvases and 160 gouaches, watercolors and drawings to be exhibited. The exhibit, held at Herwarth Walden's [[Sturm Gallery]] was a huge success, "The German critics positively sang his praises."<ref name=Teshuva/>

[[File:VitebskVKhU.jpg|thumb|right|''People's Art School'' where the Vitebsk Museum of Modern Art was situated]]
After the exhibit, he continued on to Vitebsk, where he planned to stay only long enough to marry Bella. However, after a few weeks, the First World War began, closing the Russian border for an indefinite period. A year later he married Bella Rosenfeld and they had their first child, Ida. 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 Lewis, "[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".<ref name=Lewis/> His wedding pictures were also a subject he would return to in later years as he thought about this period of his life.<ref name=Teshuva/>{{rp|75}}

[[File:Chagall Bella.jpg|thumb|upright|''[[Bella with White Collar]]'', 1917]]
In 1915, Chagall began exhibiting his work in Moscow, first exhibiting his works at a well-known salon and in 1916 exhibiting pictures in St. Petersburg. He again showed his art at a Moscow exhibition of avant-garde artists. This exposure brought recognition, and a number of wealthy collectors began buying his art. He also began illustrating a number of Yiddish books with ink drawings. He illustrated [[I. L. Peretz]]'s ''The Magician'' in 1917.<ref name="WDL">{{cite web |url = http://www.wdl.org/en/item/9615/ |title = The Magician |website = [[World Digital Library]] |year = 1917 |access-date = 30 September 2013 }}</ref> Chagall was 30 years old and had begun to become well known.<ref name=Teshuva/>{{rp|77}}

The [[October Revolution of 1917]] was a dangerous time for Chagall although it also offered opportunity. Chagall wrote he came to fear Bolshevik orders pinned on fences, writing: "The factories were stopping. The horizons opened. Space and emptiness. No more bread. The black lettering on the morning posters made me feel sick at heart".{{sfn|Moynahan|1992|p=334}} Chagall was often hungry for days, later remembering watching "a bride, the beggars and the poor wretches weighted down with bundles", leading him to conclude that the new regime had turned the Russian Empire "upside down the way I turn my pictures".{{sfn|Moynahan|1992|p=334}} By then he was one of Imperial Russia's most distinguished artists and a member of the [[modernism|modernist]] avant-garde, which enjoyed special privileges and prestige as the "aesthetic arm of the revolution".<ref name=Lewis/> He was offered a notable position as a commissar of visual arts for the country,{{clarify|reason=BNR/SSRB/BLSSR/BSSR or RSFSR?|date=March 2013}} but preferred something less political, and instead accepted a job as commissar of arts for Vitebsk. This resulted in his founding the Vitebsk Arts College which, adds Lewis, became the "most distinguished school of art in the Soviet Union".

It obtained for its faculty some of the most important artists in the country, such as [[El Lissitzky]] and [[Kazimir Malevich]]. He also added his first teacher, [[Yehuda Pen]]. Chagall tried to create an atmosphere of a collective of independently minded artists, each with their own unique style. However, this would soon prove to be difficult as a few of the key faculty members preferred a [[Suprematist]] art of squares and circles, and disapproved of Chagall's attempt at creating "bourgeois individualism". Chagall then resigned as commissar and moved to Moscow.

In Moscow he was offered a job as stage designer for the newly formed State Jewish Chamber Theater.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://dbs.bh.org.il/luminary/chagall-marc|title=Heroes – Trailblazers of the Jewish People|website=Beit Hatfutsot|access-date=7 November 2019|archive-date=7 November 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191107102419/https://dbs.bh.org.il/luminary/chagall-marc|url-status=dead}}</ref> It was set to begin operation in early 1921 with a number of plays by [[Sholem Aleichem]]. For its opening he created a number of large background murals using techniques he learned from Bakst, his early teacher. One of the main murals was {{convert|9|ft|m}} tall by {{convert|24|ft|m}} long and included images of various lively subjects such as dancers, fiddlers, acrobats, and farm animals. One critic at the time called it "Hebrew jazz in paint". Chagall created it as a "storehouse of symbols and devices", notes Lewis.<ref name=Lewis/> The murals "constituted a landmark" in the history of the theatre, and were forerunners of his later large-scale works, including murals for the New York [[Metropolitan Opera]] and the [[Paris Opera]].<ref name=Teshuva/>{{rp|87}}

The [[First World War]] ended in 1918, but the [[Russian Civil War]] continued, and famine spread. The Chagalls found it necessary to move to a smaller, less expensive, town near Moscow, although Chagall now had to commute to Moscow daily, using crowded trains. In 1921, he worked as an art teacher along with his friend sculptor [[Isaac Itkind]] in a Jewish boys' shelter in suburban [[Malakhovka, Moscow Oblast|Malakhovka]], which housed young refugees orphaned by pogroms.<ref name=Wullschlager/>{{rp|270}} While there, he created a series of illustrations for the Yiddish poetry cycle ''Grief'' written by [[David Hofstein]], who was another teacher at the Malakhovka shelter.<ref name=Wullschlager/>{{rp|273}}

After spending the years between 1921 and 1922 living in primitive conditions, he decided to go back to France so that he could develop his art in a more comfortable country. Numerous other artists, writers, and musicians were also planning to relocate to the West. He applied for an exit visa and while waiting for its uncertain approval, wrote his autobiography, ''My Life''.<ref name=Teshuva/>{{rp|121}}