Bella Rosenfeld Chagall (, ) (14 December 1889 – 2 September 1944) was a Jewish Russian writer born in

Vitebsk Vitebsk or Vitsyebsk (, ; , ; ) is a city in northern Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Vitebsk Region and Vitebsk District, though it is administratively separated from the district. As of 2025, it has 358,927 inhabitants, m ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

, nowadays

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

, and the first wife of painter

Marc Chagall Marc Chagall (born Moishe Shagal; – 28 March 1985) was a Russian and French artist. An early modernism, modernist, he was associated with the School of Paris, École de Paris, as well as several major art movement, artistic styles and created ...

. 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 ''Bouquet près de la fenêtre'' (''Bouquet by the Window'') is an oil on canvas painting by Marc Chagall dated 1959–1960. Franz Meyer, Chagall's biographer (and son-in-law), called it one of Chagall's finest flower paintings. The lovers in th ...

'', painted in 1959–1960.

Biography

Basia-Reiza "Bella" Rosenfeld was born in 1889 into a wealthy Jewish family of jewellers. She met

in 1909 who at that time was a penniless apprentice of

Léon Bakst Léon (Lev) Samoylovich Bakst (), born Leyb-Khaim Izrailevich Rosenberg (; – 27 December 1924),

. According to Marc, their love started the moment they saw each other and continued for 35 years. Chagall painted his first portrait of her that same year: ''My Fiancée with Black Gloves'' (

Kunstmuseum Basel The Kunstmuseum Basel houses the oldest public art collection in the world and is generally considered to be the most important museum of art in Switzerland. It is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance. Its lineage extends ba ...

). They married in 1915 and moved to

Petrograd Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

. The following year she gave birth to their daughter, Ida. In 1918 they returned to

and four years later, in 1922, they emigrated to

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

and then on to Germany. By 1924 they were living in Paris. In 1939, they moved to the south of France where they were arrested in 1941. They fled to the United States where Rosenfeld died of a bacterial infection on 2 September 1944. Posthumously, her most famous book, ''The Burning Lights'', was published in 1946. In 1993 she appeared, together with Chagall, on a Belarus stamp. A play ''Birthday'' about the Chagall's relationship, was written by Emma Rice, Nikki Sved and Daniel Jamieson in the 1990s. It was rewritten and became ''The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk.''

Works

* * * * with afterword by Marc Chagall

In Chagall's art

Rosenfeld was referenced to, or appeared in the following paintings by Chagall: *''My fiancé with black gloves'' (1909) *''To my betrothed'' (1911) *''The birthday'' (1915) *''Bella and Ida by the window'' (1916) *''The walk'' (1917) *'' Bella au col blanc (Bella with White Collar)'' (1917) *''Over the town'' (1917-1918) *''The wedding'' (1917-1918) *''Double portrait with a wine glass'' (1917-1918) *''Bella in Mourillon'' (1925) *''To my wife'' (1933/1944) *''Bella in green'' (1934) *''Bouquet with flying lovers'' (1934/1947) *''

(1959-1960)

References

Sources

*Shishanov V. «These young people were socialists … ». Participants of revolutionary movement in Marc Chagall and Belly Rozenfeld's environment // ''Bulletin of the Museum of Marc Chagall''. 2005. No.13. P. 64–74

*Shishanov, V. «Wishing to arrive...» (Documents on study Belly Rozenfeld on the Moscow higher female courses)// The Chagalovsky sbornik. Release. 3. Materials X – XIV Chagalovsky readings in Vitebsk (2000–2004). Minsk: «Riftur», 2008. P.176-18

1889 births 1944 deaths Writers from Vitebsk Belarusian Jews Jewish Russian writers Russian artists' models Yiddish-language writers 20th-century American novelists American women novelists Jewish American novelists Yiddish-language novelists Marc Chagall 20th-century American women writers Emigrants from the Russian Empire to Germany French emigrants to the United States {{Russia-writer-stub