Bella Chagall (1895–1944)
Author of Burning lights
About the Author
Image credit: Bella with white collar, by Marc Chagall, 1917.
Works by Bella Chagall
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Chagall, Bella
- Legal name
- Rosenfeld-Chagall, Bella
- Birthdate
- 1895
- Date of death
- 1944-09-02
- Gender
- female
- Education
- Moscow University
- Occupations
- editor
translator
memoirist
muse - Relationships
- Chagall, Marc (husband until her death)
- Short biography
- Bella Chagall, née Rosenfeld, was born to a prosperous Orthodox Jewish family in Vitebsk, Russia (present-day Belarus). She attended Russian language schools and became a student at the Faculty of Letters at Moscow University in her teens. In 1909, while visiting friends in St. Petersburg, she met Marc Chagall, and they became engaged despite her family's disapproval. The couple married in 1915 and had a daughter the following year. In 1922, they moved to France. Bella edited and translated Marc's autobiography Ma Vie . Her own work, the memoir Burning Lights, written in Yiddish in 1939, was published posthumously in English in 1946. A second volume, First Encounter, appeared in 1983. The Chagalls fled to the USA following the outbreak of World War II, settling in New York in 1941. Bella Chagall died in 1944, apparently of a viral infection.
- Nationality
- Russia (birth)
- Birthplace
- Vitebsk, Weissrussland
Vitebsk, Russian Empire - Places of residence
- Vitebsk, Belarus
Petrograd, Russia
Lithuania
Germany
Paris, France
Marseille, France (show all 7)
New York, New York, USA - Place of death
- New York, New York, USA
- Burial location
- Westchester Hills Cemetery, Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, USA
Members
Reviews
This charming memoir by Bella Chagall recalls her childhood in Vitebsk, the Russian-Jewish market town where she and her husband, Marc Chagall, grew up. Her warm reminiscences of Jewish family life in pre-Revolutionary Russia are illustrated with thirty-six pen-and-ink drawings by Marc Chagall.
Bella Chagall, a gifted author and actress, was the youngest of seven children born to a well-to-do Hasidic family. While living in France in the 1930s, the Chagalls conceived the idea of commemorating show more their native town with a book. The title they chose was Burning Lights, an allusion to the festive candles that in their childhood had lit up the holidays of the Jewish year. show less
Bella Chagall, a gifted author and actress, was the youngest of seven children born to a well-to-do Hasidic family. While living in France in the 1930s, the Chagalls conceived the idea of commemorating show more their native town with a book. The title they chose was Burning Lights, an allusion to the festive candles that in their childhood had lit up the holidays of the Jewish year. show less
Belarus. Bella Chagall was Marc Chagall's wife. This is a volume of her little tales of Jewish home and religious life, as seen by a young girl in a prosperous family. It's sweet, sometimes ethereal and sometimes almost hallucinatory. It would be a good introduction to European Jewish life in the late 19th and early 20th century. Many line drawings by Marc.
Collection of memories about groing up as a Jewish girl in Vitebsk in Russia. Fun to read about the different Jewish festivities and her first meetings with her husband-to-be.
Chagall: Burning Lights - A Unique Double Portrait of the Warm World of Russian Jewry by Bella Chagall
The author, Marc Chagall's first wife, writes about Jewish life in a small Russian town. Illustrated with pen drawings by Marc Chagall.
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 10
- Members
- 314
- Popularity
- #75,176
- Rating
- 3.5
- Reviews
- 7
- ISBNs
- 33
- Languages
- 12
- Favorited
- 2