Marc Chagall, New York

Russian Jewish artist Marc Chagall (1887–1985) lived in France between the two world wars and, like Vishniac, sought refuge in New York. Unlike Vishniac, Chagall was raised in a traditional, Yiddish-speaking Jewish household in Vitebsk; his memories of that small city in present-day Belarus inspired much of his artwork throughout this life. Chagall arrived in New York in 1941, the year that Vishniac took his portrait, and quickly became part of the French and Russian-Jewish artistic expatriate circles in the city. In 1941, well-received exhibitions of Chagall’s paintings were mounted in Chicago and New York, and he began to enjoy success in the United States.