The Musée National Marc Chagall in Nice, inaugurated in 1973 in a purpose-built structure designed by André Hermant, houses the most complete collection of Chagall's biblical paintings in the world - a cycle of seventeen monumental canvases that represent the artist's lifelong meditation on the Hebrew Bible and his most sustained contribution to the tradition of sacred art.
Chagall began the Biblical Message cycle in 1954 and completed it in 1967, working on the paintings for more than a decade alongside his other major projects (the Paris Opera ceiling, the Hadassah windows, the Metz Cathedral windows). He then donated the entire cycle to the French state, stipulating that a dedicated museum be built to house them - a unique act of artistic philanthropy that ensured the cycle would be seen as a unified programme rather than scattered among different collections.
The seventeen paintings are organized into three groups. The first and largest group, consisting of twelve paintings, depicts subjects from the first two books of Moses: Creation narratives from Genesis (God creating Adam in 1:27, the expulsion from Eden in 3:23, Noah and the rainbow covenant in 9:13), the story of Abraham and Isaac (the Binding of Isaac in Genesis 22, which Chagall, as a Jewish artist who had lived through the Holocaust, charged with overwhelming contemporary resonance), Moses and the burning bush (Exodus 3:2), and Moses receiving the tablets of the Law (Exodus 31:18). The second group of three paintings depicts scenes from the Song of Songs. The remaining two paintings treat subjects from Exodus.
Chagall's approach to these biblical subjects is saturated in the Hasidic Judaism of his Vitebsk childhood, where the Hebrew Bible was not merely a text but a living world of images, stories, and songs that accompanied every moment of Jewish life. His Moses receives the tablets with the trembling awe of a man who has seen the Lord pass by; his Adam is not a philosophical concept but a body, breathed into by a God who breathes; his Song of Songs lovers float in the radiant reds of love that knows no distinction between erotic and divine.
The museum building is significant in itself. The large windows admit natural light that interacts with the paintings' intense colors. A concert hall displays Chagall's mosaic (1971) and stained glass windows, making the museum a comprehensive environment of his sacred art. A garden with sculpture and a biblical source mosaic surrounds the building.
The Musée National Marc Chagall is located in the Nice-Cimiez neighborhood in Nice, close to the Matisse Museum and the Roman ruins of Cemenelum. It is open daily except Tuesdays and is one of the most visited museums on the French Riviera, attracting visitors interested in modern art, biblical art, and the intersection between Jewish and Christian sacred visual culture.