Bella Rosenfeld Chagall (Russian: Бэлла Розенфельд-Шагал, 14 December 1889,^[1] – 2 September 1944) was a Jewish Russian writer born in Vitebsk, Russian Empire, nowadays Belarus, and the first wife of painter Marc Chagall. 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, painted in 1959–1960.

Timeline of her biography

• 1889 Basia-Reiza "Bella" Rosenfeld^[2] was born into the wealthy Jewish family of a Vitebsk jeweler.
• 1909 She met Marc Chagall, at that time, a penniless apprentice of Léon Bakst. 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).^[3]
• 1915 they were married and moved to Petrograd.
• 1916 she gave birth to their daughter Ida.
• 1918 they returned to Vitebsk
• 1922 they emigrated to Lithuania and then to Germany.
• 1924 they moved to Paris.
• 1939 they moved to the south of France
• 1941 arrested in Marseille and then fled to the United States
• 2 September 1944 Bella died from a bacterial infection
• 1946 Posthumously, Bella Chagall's most famous book, The Burning Lights, was published.

Works

• The Burning Lights. Translation by Norbert Guterman. New York: Schocken Books Inc., 1946. 268 pp. 8vo, with thirty-six black and white illustrations by Marc Chagall.
• Chagall, Bella; Chagall, Marc; Guterman, Norbert (1996). Burning lights. New York: Biblio Press. p. 268. ISBN 0-930395-26-3. OCLC 34772275.
• —— (1983). First encounter. New York: Schocken Books. pp. VI + 348, 74 ills. ISBN 0-8052-3768-2. OCLC 9557958.

Yiddish

• Brenendike likht (The Burning Lights), with drawings by Marc Chagall. New York: Book League of the Jewish People's Fraternal Order, IWO, 1945. Yiddish. 254 pp.
• Di ershte bagegenish (The First Encounter), with drawings by Marc Chagall. New York: Book League of the Jewish People's Fraternal Order, IWO, 1947. Yiddish. 230 pp.