The son of a woodcarver, Jacques Chapiro was born on June 19, 1897, in Dunebourg (Dvinsk), now Daugavpils, Latvia. His artistic education began early and continued academically: he studied at the Kharkov School of Fine Arts in 1915, then at the Kiev School of Fine Arts in 1918. In 1921, he joined the Petrograd School of Fine Arts, where he also worked as an assistant set designer for Meyerhold, a figure of Constructivist theater. He later collaborated with Stanislavsky and Vakhtangov, deepening his connection with the theater world.
In 1925, he moved to Paris and found residence at the Cité d'artistes de la Ruche, where he stayed for five years and became friends with Chaïm Soutine. In the 1930s, his portraits were marked by a singular expressiveness: twisted faces, chromatic intensity and powerful compositions that foreshadowed some of Francis Bacon's future developments. Historians have also noted stylistic similarities with Vincent Van Gogh and Soutine.
The Second World War led him into exile in the south of France, first to Carpentras and then to Serres, in the Hautes-Alpes region. After the conflict, he traveled to Italy before returning to Paris. In the 1960s, he began writing an anecdotal account of the daily lives of the artists at La Ruche. In 1967, faced with plans to demolish the site, he and Marc Chagall founded a preservation committee, successfully securing its preservation. Jacques Chapiro died in Paris on December 11, 1972, leaving behind a body of work deeply rooted in the history of the School of Paris.
