Chagall's mentor, muse, model, partner, manager, angel and wife: Who is Bella Chagall?
Marc Chagall met Bella, who would later become his wife, in 1909, when she was only 14 years old. He was 22 years old, but; - That's my wife, I'm sure she knows and will know everything about me, he said to himself.
Bella also never forgot the day they met and Chagall's blue eyes looking deeply at her.
Years later, in her memoirs;
"It was as if those blue eyes were like sailboats, they wanted to take me away with their arms around me," she wrote.
And from that day on, they were together at every opportunity. Bella's family was rich. They didn't want to give their daughter to a penniless painter from the countryside. But Marc and Bella resisted for 5 years and finally got married.
Bella Rosenfeld Chagall (14 December 1889, – 2 September 1944) was a Jewish Russian writer born in Vitebsk, Russian Empire, nowadays Belarus, and the first wife of painter Marc Chagall. She was the subject of many of Chagall's paintings including Bella au col blanc (Bella with White Collar) in 1917, and appears posthumously in Bouquet près de la fenêtre, painted in 1959–1960.
From the day they met, Bella was Chagall's mentor, muse, model, partner, manager, lover, angel, wife, in short, everything. As long as they lived together, not a single Chagall painting was finished unless Bella approved it.
Bella and Marc Chagall
In my opinion, Marc Chagall is one of the greatest artists of our century. He was born in Tsarist Russia, where Jews were prohibited from traveling. That's why he would draw the village and house where he was born, himself and his loved ones, "floating in the air because their bodies are captive but their souls are free."
His paintings are filled with colorful cows, horses, fish, violins, pendulum clocks, trees, circuses, weddings and roosters. Each object he draws bears traces of deep symbolism. "Love" was a theme he used a lot, and in one word - it was just Bella, and that's why he constantly drew his wife Bella.
“Birthday”, Marc Chagall, 1915
Bella and Marc Chagall were married for 30 years until Bella died suddenly of a virus in New York in 1944. Chagall was completely devastated...
The night Bella died, there was a very strong storm that blew open the windows in their New York home. The unforgettable storm that the painful Marc Chagall experienced that night left deep scars on the artist, who fell into depression for 9 months.
Since that day, he has strongly objected to the use of the word "dead" in his presence about Bella. He spent 9 months reading the texts of his wife, who is a writer. Finally, he took the brush and painted several paintings with Bella in them. One of these is his deep blue work called Le coq rouge dans la nuit.
Bella in the painting “Le coq rouge dans la nuit” is floating in the blue sky, which symbolizes eternal love, with her eyes fixed on the moon reflected in the water. Chagall, as in all the pictures of the couple together, is trying to hug his beloved wife, but cannot fully grasp her. The horse's head, which seems to be approaching them, symbolizes freedom, and the horse's violin-shaped body symbolizes the daily cycle and the music of life. The red rooster facing the moon, the most prominent object in the picture, heralds the birth of a new day and the end of the previous night.
"Le Coq Rouge dans la Nuit", 1944
All these symbols show what Chagall is saying to himself in this painting;
- Okay, you are in a lot of pain, you loved him very much, but you can't hold on to him. It's time to come back to life!