1.
Philadelphia
–
In 1682, William Penn, an English Quaker, founded the city to serve as capital of the Pennsylvania Colony. Philadelphia was one of the capitals in the Revolutionary War. In the 19th century, Philadelphia became an industrial center. It became a destination for African-Americans in the Great Migration. The areas many universities and colleges make Philadelphia a top international study destination, as the city has evolved into an educational, with a gross domestic product of $388 billion, Philadelphia ranks ninth among world cities and fourth in the nation. Philadelphia is the center of activity in Pennsylvania and is home to seven Fortune 1000 companies. The Philadelphia skyline is growing, with a market of almost 81,900 commercial properties in 2016 including several prominent skyscrapers. The city is known for its arts, culture, and rich history, Philadelphia has more outdoor sculptures and murals than any other American city. Fairmount Park, when combined with the adjacent Wissahickon Valley Park in the watershed, is one of the largest contiguous urban park areas in the United States. The 67 National Historic Landmarks in the city helped account for the $10 billion generated by tourism, Philadelphia is the only World Heritage City in the United States. Before Europeans arrived, the Philadelphia area was home to the Lenape Indians in the village of Shackamaxon, the Lenape are a Native American tribe and First Nations band government. They are also called Delaware Indians and their territory was along the Delaware River watershed, western Long Island. Most Lenape were pushed out of their Delaware homeland during the 18th century by expanding European colonies, Lenape communities were weakened by newly introduced diseases, mainly smallpox, and violent conflict with Europeans. Iroquois people occasionally fought the Lenape, surviving Lenape moved west into the upper Ohio River basin. The American Revolutionary War and United States independence pushed them further west, in the 1860s, the United States government sent most Lenape remaining in the eastern United States to the Indian Territory under the Indian removal policy. In the 21st century, most Lenape now reside in the US state of Oklahoma, with communities living also in Wisconsin, Ontario. The Dutch considered the entire Delaware River valley to be part of their New Netherland colony, in 1638, Swedish settlers led by renegade Dutch established the colony of New Sweden at Fort Christina and quickly spread out in the valley. In 1644, New Sweden supported the Susquehannocks in their defeat of the English colony of Maryland
2.
New York (state)
–
New York is a state in the northeastern United States, and is the 27th-most extensive, fourth-most populous, and seventh-most densely populated U. S. state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south and Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont to the east. With an estimated population of 8.55 million in 2015, New York City is the most populous city in the United States, the New York Metropolitan Area is one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world. New York City makes up over 40% of the population of New York State, two-thirds of the states population lives in the New York City Metropolitan Area, and nearly 40% lives on Long Island. Both the state and New York City were named for the 17th-century Duke of York, the next four most populous cities in the state are Buffalo, Rochester, Yonkers, and Syracuse, while the state capital is Albany. New York has a diverse geography and these more mountainous regions are bisected by two major river valleys—the north-south Hudson River Valley and the east-west Mohawk River Valley, which forms the core of the Erie Canal. Western New York is considered part of the Great Lakes Region and straddles Lake Ontario, between the two lakes lies Niagara Falls. The central part of the state is dominated by the Finger Lakes, New York had been inhabited by tribes of Algonquian and Iroquoian-speaking Native Americans for several hundred years by the time the earliest Europeans came to New York. The first Europeans to arrive were French colonists and Jesuit missionaries who arrived southward from settlements at Montreal for trade, the British annexed the colony from the Dutch in 1664. The borders of the British colony, the Province of New York, were similar to those of the present-day state, New York is home to the Statue of Liberty, a symbol of the United States and its ideals of freedom, democracy, and opportunity. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. On April 17,1524 Verrazanno entered New York Bay, by way of the now called the Narrows into the northern bay which he named Santa Margherita. Verrazzano described it as a vast coastline with a delta in which every kind of ship could pass and he adds. This vast sheet of water swarmed with native boats and he landed on the tip of Manhattan and possibly on the furthest point of Long Island. Verrazannos stay was interrupted by a storm which pushed him north towards Marthas Vineyard, in 1540 French traders from New France built a chateau on Castle Island, within present-day Albany, due to flooding, it was abandoned the next year. In 1614, the Dutch under the command of Hendrick Corstiaensen, rebuilt the French chateau, Fort Nassau was the first Dutch settlement in North America, and was located along the Hudson River, also within present-day Albany. The small fort served as a trading post and warehouse, located on the Hudson River flood plain, the rudimentary fort was washed away by flooding in 1617, and abandoned for good after Fort Orange was built nearby in 1623. Henry Hudsons 1609 voyage marked the beginning of European involvement with the area, sailing for the Dutch East India Company and looking for a passage to Asia, he entered the Upper New York Bay on September 11 of that year
3.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation
–
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation is a nonprofit organization founded in 1937 by philanthropist Solomon R. Guggenheim and his long-time art advisor, artist Hilla von Rebay. The foundation is an institution for the collection, preservation. The first museum established by the foundation was The Museum of Non-Objective Painting and this became The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 1952, and the foundation moved the collection into its first permanent museum building, in New York City, in 1959. The foundation next opened the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, Italy, the Foundation seeks, in its constituent museums, to unite distinguished architecture and artworks. The foundations first permanent museum, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, is housed in a spiral building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Both of these innovative designs received wide press and critical attention, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection is housed in an 18th-century Italian palace, the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, on the Grand Canal. The foundations collections have expanded greatly through eight decades and include every major movement of 20th- and its directors and curators have attempted to form a single collection that is not encyclopedic, but rather based on their unique visions. The collection has grown in scope to include new media and performance art, Solomon R. Guggenheim, a member of a wealthy mining family, began collecting works of the old masters in the 1890s. He retired from his business in 1919 to devote time to art collecting. In 1926, at age 66, he met artist Hilla von Rebay, Rebay introduced him to European avant-garde art, in particular abstract art that she felt had a spiritual and utopian aspect. Guggenheim completely changed his collecting strategy, in 1930, the two visited Wassily Kandinskys studio in Dessau, Germany, and Guggenheim began to purchase Kandinskys work. The same year, Guggenheim began to display the collection to the public at his apartment in the Plaza Hotel in New York City, in 1937, Guggenheim established the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation to foster the appreciation of modern art. The foundations first venue for the display of art was called the Museum of Non-Objective Painting and it opened in 1939 under the direction of Rebay, its first curator, in a former automobile showroom at East 54th Street in midtown Manhattan. This moved, in 1947, to another rented space at 1071 Fifth Avenue, by the early 1940s, the foundation had accumulated such a large collection of avant-garde paintings that the need for a permanent building to house the art collection had become apparent. In 1943, Guggenheim and Rebay commissioned architect Frank Lloyd Wright to design the museum building, Rebay conceived of the space as a temple of the spirit that would facilitate a new way of looking at the modern pieces in the collection. In 1948, the collection was expanded through the purchase of art dealer Karl Nierendorfs estate of some 730 objects. By that time, the collection included a broad spectrum of expressionist and surrealist works, including paintings by Paul Klee, Oskar Kokoschka. Guggenheim died in 1949, and the museum was renamed the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 1952, the foundation expanded its display activities with a series of traveling exhibitions
4.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
–
It is the permanent home of a continuously expanding collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, early Modern and contemporary art and also features special exhibitions throughout the year. The museum was established by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in 1939 as the Museum of Non-Objective Painting, under the guidance of its first director and it adopted its current name after the death of its founder, Solomon R. Guggenheim, in 1952. In 1959, the museum moved from rented space to its current building, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, the cylindrical building, wider at the top than the bottom, was conceived as a temple of the spirit. Its unique ramp gallery extends up from ground level in a long, the building underwent extensive expansion and renovations in 1992 and from 2005 to 2008. The museums collection has grown organically, over eight decades, and is founded several important private collections. The collection is shared with the museums sister museums in Bilbao, Spain, in 2013, nearly 1.2 million people visited the museum, and it hosted the most popular exhibition in New York City. Solomon R. Guggenheim, a member of a mining family, had been collecting works of the old masters since the 1890s. In 1926, he met artist Hilla von Rebay, who introduced him to European avant-garde art, in abstract art that she felt had a spiritual. Guggenheim completely changed his strategy, turning to the work of Wassily Kandinsky. He began to display his collection to the public at his apartment in the Plaza Hotel in New York City, as the collection grew, he established the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, in 1937, to foster the appreciation of modern art. The foundations first venue for the display of art, the Museum of Non-Objective Painting, opened in 1939 under the direction of Rebay, in midtown Manhattan. By the early 1940s, the foundation had accumulated such a collection of avant-garde paintings that the need for a permanent museum building had become apparent. In 1943, Rebay and Guggenheim wrote a letter to Frank Lloyd Wright asking him to design a structure to house, Wright accepted the opportunity to experiment with his organic style in an urban setting. It took him 15 years,700 sketches, and six sets of working drawings to create the museum, in 1948, the collection was greatly expanded through the purchase of art dealer Karl Nierendorfs estate of some 730 objects, notably German expressionist paintings. By that time, the collection included a broad spectrum of expressionist and surrealist works, including paintings by Paul Klee, Oskar Kokoschka. Nevertheless, she left a portion of her collection to the foundation in her will, including works by Kandinsky, Klee, Alexander Calder, Albert Gleizes, Mondrian. The museum was renamed the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 1952, Rebay conceived of the space as a temple of the spirit that would facilitate a new way of looking at the modern pieces in the collection. She wrote to Wright that each of these great masterpieces should be organized into space, would test the possibilities to do so
5.
Guggenheim family
–
The Guggenheim family is an American family known for their involvement in the mining industry and later in philanthropy. Meyer Guggenheim, a Swiss citizen of Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry, arrived in America in 1847, over the next few decades, the family became known for their global successes in mining and smelting and eventually the family possessed one of the largest fortunes in the world. They sold their mining interests following World War I, then later purchased nitrate mines in Chile. Subsequently, the largely left direct involvement in running businesses. However, one family investment company, Guggenheim Partners, today manages over $200 billion in assets, another family vehicle, Guggenheim Investment Advisors, oversees about $50 billion in assets. Meyer Guggenheim had eleven children, including eight sons, five of whom were active in the businesses, Isaac, Daniel, Murry, Solomon Robert. The other sons were Benjamin, Robert and William, the daughters were Jeanette, Rose and Cora. Meyers eleven children, their spouses and notable descendants are shown below, Davis, the Guggenheims, 1848–1988, An American Epic. Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Foundation Guggenheim Partners, LLC
6.
Alaska
–
Alaska is a U. S. state located in the northwest extremity of North America. To the north are the Chukchi and Beaufort seas–the southern parts of the Arctic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean lies to the south and southwest. Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area, the 3rd least populous, approximately half of Alaskas residents live within the Anchorage metropolitan area. Alaskas economy is dominated by the fishing, natural gas, military bases and tourism are also a significant part of the economy. The United States purchased Alaska from the Russian Empire on March 30,1867, the area went through several administrative changes before becoming organized as a territory on May 11,1912. It was admitted as the 49th state of the U. S. on January 3,1959, the name Alaska was introduced in the Russian colonial period when it was used to refer to the peninsula. It was derived from an Aleut, or Unangam idiom, which refers to the mainland of Alaska. Literally, it means object to which the action of the sea is directed, Alaska is the northernmost and westernmost state in the United States and has the most easterly longitude in the United States because the Aleutian Islands extend into the Eastern Hemisphere. Alaska is the only non-contiguous U. S. state on continental North America and it is technically part of the continental U. S. but is sometimes not included in colloquial use, Alaska is not part of the contiguous U. S. often called the Lower 48. The capital city, Juneau, is situated on the mainland of the North American continent but is not connected by road to the rest of the North American highway system. Alaskas territorial waters touch Russias territorial waters in the Bering Strait, as the Russian Big Diomede Island, Alaska has a longer coastline than all the other U. S. states combined. Alaska is the largest state in the United States by total area at 663,268 square miles, over twice the size of Texas, Alaska is larger than all but 18 sovereign countries. Counting territorial waters, Alaska is larger than the area of the next three largest states, Texas, California, and Montana. It is also larger than the area of the 22 smallest U. S. states. Also referred to as the Panhandle or Inside Passage, this is the region of Alaska closest to the rest of the United States, as such, this was where most of the initial non-indigenous settlement occurred in the years following the Alaska Purchase. The region is dominated by the Alexander Archipelago as well as the Tongass National Forest and it contains the state capital Juneau, the former capital Sitka, and Ketchikan, at one time Alaskas largest city. The Alaska Marine Highway provides a vital transportation link throughout the area. The Interior is the largest region of Alaska, much of it is uninhabited wilderness, Fairbanks is the only large city in the region
7.
Old Master
–
In art history, Old Master refers to any painter of skill who worked in Europe before about 1800, or a painting by such an artist. An old master print is a print made by an artist in the same period. The term old master drawing is used in the same way, therefore, beyond a certain level of competence, date rather than quality is the criterion for using the term. The Oxford English Dictionary defines the term as A pre-eminent artist of the period before the modern, a pre-eminent western European painter of the 13th to 18th centuries. The term is used to refer to a painting or sculpture made by an Old Master. Les Maitres dautrefois of 1876 by Eugene Fromentin may have helped to popularize the concept, the collection in the Dresden museum essentially stops at the Baroque period. The end date is necessarily vague – for example, Goya is certainly an Old Master, the term might also be used for John Constable or Eugène Delacroix, but usually is not. The term tends to be avoided by art historians as too vague, especially when discussing paintings, although the terms Old Master Prints and it remains current in the art trade. Auction houses still usually divide their sales between, for example, Old Master Paintings, Nineteenth-century paintings and Modern paintings, christies defines the term as ranging from the 14th to the early 19th century. S. Master of Flémalle, Master of Mary of Burgundy, Master of Latin 757, Master of the Brunswick Diptych or Master of Schloss Lichtenstein
8.
Wassily Kandinsky
–
Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky was a Russian painter and art theorist. He is credited with painting one of the first recognised purely abstract works, born in Moscow, Kandinsky spent his childhood in Odessa, where he graduated at Grekov Odessa Art school. He enrolled at the University of Moscow, studying law and economics, successful in his profession—he was offered a professorship at the University of Dorpat—Kandinsky began painting studies at the age of 30. In 1896 Kandinsky settled in Munich, studying first at Anton Ažbes private school and he returned to Moscow in 1914, after the outbreak of World War I. Kandinsky was unsympathetic to the theories on art in Communist Moscow. There, he taught at the Bauhaus school of art and architecture from 1922 until the Nazis closed it in 1933. He then moved to France, where he lived for the rest of his life, becoming a French citizen in 1939 and he died at Neuilly-sur-Seine in 1944. Kandinskys creation of work followed a long period of development. He called this devotion to beauty, fervor of spirit. Kandinsky was born in Moscow, the son of Lidia Ticheeva and Vasily Silvestrovich Kandinsky, Kandinsky learned from a variety of sources while in Moscow. He studied many fields while in school, including law and economics, later in life, he would recall being fascinated and stimulated by colour as a child. His fascination with colour symbolism and psychology continued as he grew, in 1889, he was part of an ethnographic research group which travelled to the Vologda region north of Moscow. In Looks on the Past, he relates that the houses and churches were decorated with such shimmering colours that upon entering them and this experience, and his study of the regions folk art, was reflected in much of his early work. The artist is the hand plays, touching one key or another. Kandinsky was also the uncle of Russian-French philosopher Alexandre Kojève, in 1896, at the age of 30, Kandinsky gave up a promising career teaching law and economics to enroll in the Munich Academy where his teachers would eventually include Franz von Stuck. He was not immediately granted admission, and began learning art on his own and that same year, before leaving Moscow, he saw an exhibit of paintings by Monet. He was particularly taken with the style of Haystacks, this. Later, he would write about this experience, That it was a haystack the catalogue informed me and this non-recognition was painful to me
9.
Dessau
–
Dessau is a city in Germany on the junction of the rivers Mulde and Elbe, in the Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt. Since 1 July 2007, it is part of the new city of Dessau-Roßlau, Dessau is situated on a floodplain where the Mulde flows into the Elbe. The worst flood took place in the year 2002, when the Waldersee district was completely flooded. The south of Dessau touches a well-wooded area called Mosigkauer Heide, the highest elevation is a 110m high former rubbish dump called Scherbelberg in the southwest of Dessau. Dessau is surrounded by parks and palaces that ranks Dessau as one of the greenest towns in Germany. Dessau was first mentioned in 1213 and it became an important centre in 1570, when the Principality of Anhalt was founded. Dessau became the capital of state within the Holy Roman Empire. Anhalt was dissolved In 1603 it was split into four – later five – Anhalts, in 1863 two of the noble line died out, and became reunited. Dessau is famous for its college of architecture Bauhaus and it moved here in 1925 after it had been forced to close in Weimar. Many famous artists were lecturers in Dessau in the years, among them Walter Gropius, Paul Klee. The Nazis forced the closure of the Bauhaus in 1931, the city was almost completely destroyed by Allied air raids in World War II on March 7,1945, six weeks before American troops occupied the town. Afterwards it was rebuilt with typical GDR concrete slab architecture and became an industrial centre of East Germany. Since German reunification in 1990 many historic buildings have been restored, the composer Kurt Weill was born in Dessau. Since 1993 the city has hosted an annual Kurt Weill Festival, Dessau was also the birthplace of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, and Leopold I, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau, a lauded field marshal for the Kingdom of Prussia. Since January 7,2005, Dessau has gained notoriety for the death of Sierra Leonean convicted drug trafficker. According to local police, Jalloh, who was drunk and had tied to his bed because he was volatile and violent, set his own mattress on fire. A local court acquitted officers in 2008, in 2010, however, a higher federal court declared the ruling null and void, and ordered a new investigation and trial be launched. The Bauhaus College itself was constructed based on designs by Walter Adolph Georg Gropius, Dessau Hauptbahnhof has connections to Magdeburg, Berlin, Leipzig, Halle, Bitterfeld and Lutherstadt Wittenberg
10.
Plaza Hotel
–
With a height of 250 ft and a length of 400 ft, the hotel occupies the west side of Grand Army Plaza, from which it derives its name, and extends along Central Park South in Manhattan. Fifth Avenue extends along the east side of Grand Army Plaza, the Plaza Hotel is recognized as a Historic Hotel of America by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The hotels main entrance at 768 Fifth Avenue faces the southern portion of Grand Army Plaza, the Grand Ballroom, Terrace Room and meeting spaces are currently managed by CPS Events, a joint venture between Delaware North Companies and the high end caterer Great Performances. The Oak Room, now closed, was another restaurant in the Plaza, the Plaza Hotel is the second hotel of that name on the site. The French Renaissance château-style building was designed by Henry Janeway Hardenbergh, at the time, it cost $12.5 million to construct. When the hotel opened, a room at the Plaza Hotel was only $2.50 per night, the same room costs over 15 times as much today. Alphonse Salamone joined the hotel in 1947, although later left to accept a position in San Juan at the Caribe Hilton and he returned the hotel and helped it out of hardship during the 1960s. The Plaza Hotel was accorded landmark status by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1969, the hotel offers tours of its interior to the public. Long the site for famous performers and guests, it has also been the place for important political meetings. Miles Davis recorded an album in the Persian Room in 1958. Unaccompanied ladies were not permitted in the Oak Room bar, women favored the Palm Court for luncheons, in September 1985, ministers of developed countries met at the Plaza Hotel to consult on finance issues and affirmed their agreement by signing the Plaza Accord. It served as an agreement among the ministers of the United States, Japan, West Germany, France. The Beatles stayed at the Plaza Hotel during their first visit to the United States in February 1964, on November 28,1966, in honor of the publisher Katharine Graham, the writer Truman Capote hosted his acclaimed Black and White Ball in the Grand Ballroom. The ballroom was also the site, in 1993, of Donald Trumps wedding to Marla Maples in front of 1,500 guests, conrad Hilton bought the Plaza Hotel for $7.4 million in 1943 and spent $6 million refurbishing it. The Childs Company, a restaurant chain which partnered in the development of the neighboring Savoy-Plaza Hotel. Childs, later named Sonesta International Hotels, sold the Plaza to Western International Hotels in 1975 for $25 million, Donald Trump bought the Plaza Hotel for $407.5 million in 1988. Trump commented on his purchase in an open letter in The New York Times, I havent purchased a building. For the first time in my life, I have knowingly made a deal that was not economic – for I can never justify the price I paid, Trump installed his wife, Ivana Trump as the hotels president
11.
Rudolf Bauer (artist)
–
Born in Lindenwald, county Wirsitz near Bromberg, Province of Posen, to middle class parents, Rudolf Bauers family moved to Berlin in his youth. Bauer made art from an age, but his father was disapproving. In spite of this discouragement Bauer left home and attended the Academy of Fine Arts, Bauer supported himself as an artist by creating illustrations and caricatures for some of the major magazines and newspapers of the day. In 1912, as Bauer continued to do figurative and commercial work and that same year he met Herwarth Walden, who had just founded Der Sturm. Der Sturm would become the most important artistic center in Berlin at this period, in 1915 Bauer was invited to participate in a group show at Der Sturm. He would continue to participate in the Der Sturm gallery scene through the mid-1920s. He had his first solo show there in 1917, with 120 Lyrical Abstract works, among the artists who were in the Der Sturm group were Wassily Kandinsky, Marc Chagall, Paul Klee, and Franz Marc. Like Paul Klee, Bauer became a teacher in the Sturm School, in 1917 Bauer was introduced to the Baroness Hilla Rebay von Ehrenwiesen. Rebay, also an artist, met Bauer at Der Sturm, Bauer and Rebay shared a studio beginning in 1919, but her family did not approve of Bauer. In the early 1920s she traveled to Italy and she and Bauer would continue to write to one another regularly, but their relationship became platonic, though still fraught with difficulties. She would later write in 1949 that Bauer’s paintings were very beautiful and subtle in color and we had no artist in those early years whose work so appealed to the public in general and which received so much response. Bauer remained in Berlin in the 1920s and continued to both abstract, or as the movement came to be known, Non-Objective art, as well as figurative work to support himself. In 1927 Hilla Rebay traveled to the United States, a year later she began a portrait commission of copper magnate Solomon R. Guggenheim. Rebay showed Guggenheim Non-Objective art by Bauer and Kandinsky, and he decided to start a collection of the work, in 1930 Solomon Guggenheim and his wife, Irene, traveled with Rebay to Germany to meet Bauer and Kandinsky. By this point, Bauer’s work had moved from lyrical to geometric abstraction, Guggenheim bought several of Bauer’s new works and also put him on a stipend, which allowed Bauer to open his own museum for his work and the work of other Non-Objective painters such as Kandinsky. He called his museum Das Geistreich, or The Realm of the Spirit, in June 1937 Guggenheim formed the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation for his collection, with Rebay as its official curator. The Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, South Carolina, hosted the first public showing of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Collection of Non-Objective Paintings in March 1936, Bauer traveled to the United States for the first time to be present at the opening of the exhibition. From that show a show of his work traveled to the Arts Club of Chicago
12.
Marc Chagall
–
Marc Zakharovich Chagall was a Russian-French artist. Art critic Robert Hughes referred to Chagall as the quintessential Jewish artist of the twentieth century, according to art historian Michael J. Lewis, Chagall was considered to be the last survivor of the first generation of European modernists. For decades, he had also respected as the worlds preeminent Jewish artist. Using the medium of stained glass, he produced windows for the cathedrals of Reims and Metz, windows for the UN, and he also did large-scale paintings, including part of the ceiling of the Paris Opéra. Before World War I, he travelled between Saint Petersburg, Paris and Berlin, during this period he created his own mixture and style of modern art based on his idea of Eastern European Jewish folk culture. He had two basic reputations, writes Lewis, as a pioneer of modernism and as a major Jewish artist. He experienced modernisms golden age in Paris, where he synthesized the art forms of Cubism, Symbolism, and Fauvism, and the influence of Fauvism gave rise to Surrealism. Yet throughout these phases of his style he remained most emphatically a Jewish artist, when Matisse dies, Pablo Picasso remarked in the 1950s, Chagall will be the only painter left who understands what colour really is. Marc Chagall was born Moishe Segal in a Lithuanian Jewish family in Liozna, at the time of his birth, Vitebsks population was about 66,000, with half the population being Jewish. A picturesque city of churches and synagogues, it was called Russian Toledo, as the city was built mostly of wood, little of it survived years of occupation and destruction during World War II. Chagall was the eldest of nine children, the family name, Shagal, is a variant of the name Segal, which in a Jewish community was usually borne by a Levitic family. His father, Khatskl Shagal, was employed by a herring merchant and his father worked hard, carrying heavy barrels but earning only 20 roubles each month. Chagall would later include fish motifs out of respect for his father, writes Chagall biographer, Chagall wrote of these early years, Day after day, winter and summer, at six oclock in the morning, my father got up and went off to the synagogue. There he said his prayer for some dead man or other. On his return he made ready the samovar, drank some tea, hellish work, the work of a galley-slave. No word will ever ease my fathers lot, There was always plenty of butter and cheese on our table. Buttered bread, like a symbol, was never out of my childish hands. One of the sources of income of the Jewish population of the town was from the manufacture of clothing that was sold throughout Russia
