BornMarc Chagall was born '''Moishe Segal''' משה סג"ל ("Segal" being a [[Levite]] surname, an acronym of סגן לוי ''Segan Levi'', meaning "Assistant Levite"); his name was [[Russification|Russified]] '''MoisheMark Zakharovich Shagalov''' and further to '''Shagal''' (Шагал), which is the [[Russian]] for ''he marched'' or ''paced''. Chagall was born in [[Vitebsk]], [[Belarus]] (then in the [[Russian Empire]]), Chagall was the oldest of nine children in the close-knit [[Jewish]] family led by his father, a [[herring]] [[merchant]] and his mother, Feiga-Ita. This period of his life, described as happy though impoverished, appears in references throughout Chagall's work.
Beginning to study painting in [[1906]] under famed local artist [[Yehuda Pen]], Chagall moved to [[Saint Petersburg|St. Petersburg]] only a few months later in [[1907]]. There he joined the school of the Society of Art Supporters and studied under [[Nikolai Roerich]], encountering artists of every school and style. From [[1908]]-[[1910]] he studied under [[Leon Bakst]] at [[Zvyagintseva School]].
