Marc Chagall was a painter first, but in the second half of his life he designed windows for synagogues, cathedrals and churches around the world. His colour is the main draw: deep blues, reds and yellows, with floating figures, animals and symbols. He worked with specialist glassmakers rather than making the glass himself, and the most important of them was Charles Marq of Reims.
All Saints, Tudeley
The only church in the world with every window designed by Chagall is All Saints in Tudeley, a village in Kent. It began with a tragedy: Sarah d’Avigdor-Goldsmid died in 1963 at the age of 21 in a sailing accident off Rye, and her parents, Sir Henry and Lady d’Avigdor-Goldsmid, commissioned Chagall to make a memorial window. The east window was installed in 1967. Chagall then designed the remaining eleven windows over the next fifteen years, and the last, in the chancel, were installed in 1985, the year he died.
Other windows
He also made the twelve windows for the Hadassah Medical Centre in Jerusalem (1962), a window for Reims Cathedral (1974) and a window for Chichester Cathedral (1978).
How the glass is made
Chagall provided designs and colour guidance, and the glassmaker cut, painted and leaded the pieces, working to his drawings. The process is the same as for any leaded window: see leaded lights and the glossary entry for cartoon. Some of the effect comes from layered glass and from acid and abrasive work on the surface, described on the acid etched glass page.
Sources and further reading
More artists
Also on this site: Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Comfort Tiffany, John La Farge, Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris, Harry Clarke, John Piper and Patrick Reyntiens. See all artists.
For the wider story, see Stained Glass from the Gothic Revival to the Twentieth Century and A Short History of Stained Glass.