Marc Chagall: What Colour Is Paradise?

by Marc Chagall, Thomas David, Elisabeth Lemke

Explores Chagall's art and life through photographs, paintings, and writings by and about the artist.

Genres: Picture Books, Art, Childrens

28 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2000

About the author

Marc Chagall born Moishe Shagal (6 July 1887 – 28 March 1985) was a Belarusian, Russian and French artist of Jewish ancestry.

An early modernist, Chagall was associated with the École de Paris, as well as several major artistic styles and created works in a wide range of artistic formats, including painting, drawings, book illustrations, stained glass, stage sets, ceramics, tapestries and fine art prints.

Chagall lived in France and Russia for decades but in 1941, he settled in New York, which was full of writers, painters, and composers who, like himself, had fled from Europe during the Nazi invasions.

After the war, he chose to return to France and spent his last years living in the Côte d'Azur.

Reviews

[Monique · Rating 4 out of 5]

In those days, the little town of Vitebsk had thirty churches and more than sixty synagogues. Running past the paling fences and the brightly-painted wooden cottages, skirting the little gardens and the hens and the goats -- this was the way Marc would take to the synagogue on feast days to listen to what the Prayer Leader had to say.

Passages from the Book of Genesis alternate with passages of biography, as various people in the artist's life read the scriptures aloud to him.

For Marc, God was to be found in all people and things and so he mixed the stories in the scriptures with the everyday world which we can see around us -- just like he mixed the colours on his palette.

Whets the appetite for Chagall's autobiography and for more and more of his paintings.

(re-read 11.9.2026)

[GoldenjoyBazyll · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderful Adventures in Art book! The book includes actual photographs of the Chagall family as well as poetic explanations of his paintings.

He uses scriptures and intermingles them with his daily life because he believed that God was found in each and every person as well as in the world around us.

My favorite quote: "There was laughter and tears, dancing and games, happiness, love and suffering. That's what life is.

Also, an interesting note on the way the book was written and the graphic design.... certain passages were written in different colors of the rainbow as if they were spilling off his pallate. Sometimes, like with the snake the quotes were written in the shape,

I will be examining more of this series. Love it but definately they are for an older child.

[Dewi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buku ini bercerita tentang hidup Marc Chagall beserta beberapa karya yang dihasilkan semasa hidup.
Ceritanya memikat dengan ilustrasi berupa lukisan Chagall sendiri.