The Fiddler, 1912 by Marc Chagall. Oil on canvas, 188 x 158 cm, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. This painting, done in Paris, depicts a fiddler against the background of a town resembling Chagall’s childhood shtetl, Vitebsk. It recalls aspects of Chagall’s life in Russia, integrating both Christian and Jewish elements and practices. The fiddler hints at Chagall’s upbringing among the Hasidim who used music and dance to bring a community together and inspire religious devotion. Fiddler on the Roof, the musical and cinematic adaptations of Sholem Aleichem’s Tevye the Dairyman, borrowed their names from the painting.