Early Life, Family and Training Marc Chagall enters the world on July 7, 1887, in Vitebsk, Russian Empire, born Moishe Segal. He is the first of nine children in a modest Jewish family. Life is defined by the rhythms of labor and small-scale commerce. His father, Khatskel Segal, works as a herring pickler at a warehouse, while his mother, Feïga-Ita Tchernina, manages a small grocery store. These early years are rooted in the specific t…