Marc Chagall
French, born Russia, 1887­1985
The Praying Jew
1923 copy of a 1914 work
Oil on canvas
116.9 x 88.9 cm
Joseph Winterbotham Collection, 1937.188
© 1995 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York  / ADAGP, Paris

Chagall was born in the Jewish quarter of a small town in Russia. Although he spent most of his working life in France, his paintings, drawings, mosaics, and stained glass reflect his love of Russian folk art and his roots in Hasidic Judaism. Chagall first painted The Praying Jew when he returned to Russia for a few years during and after World War I. He paid an old beggar who wandered by his house to pose with a prayer shawl covering his head and shoulders. This simple, moving painting expresses what Chagall once said he wished his work to express, “my sigh, the sigh of prayer and of sadness, the prayer of salvation, or rebirth.”