Ossip Zadkine (russian: Осип Цадкин; 28 January 1888 – 25 November 1967) was a Belarusian-born French artist. He is best known as a sculptor, but also produced paintings and
lithographs
Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...
.
Early years and education
Zadkine was born on 28 January 1888 as Yossel Aronovich Tsadkin (russian: Иосель Аронович Цадкин) in the city of
Vitsebsk
Vitebsk or Viciebsk (russian: Витебск, ; be, Ві́цебск, ; , ''Vitebsk'', lt, Vitebskas, pl, Witebsk), is a city in Belarus. The capital of the Vitebsk Region, it has 366,299 inhabitants, making it the country's fourth-largest ci ...
,
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
(now
Belarus
Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...
). He was born to a baptized Jewish father and a mother named Zippa-Dvoyra, who he claimed to be of Scottish origin.
Archival materials state that Iosel-Shmuila Aronovich Tsadkin was of Jewish faith and studied in the Vitebsk City Technical School between 1900 and 1904, including two years in one class with would-be artists
Marc Chagall (then Movsha Shagal) and
Victor Mekler
The name Victor or Viktor may refer to:
* Victor (name), including a list of people with the given name, mononym, or surname
Arts and entertainment
Film
* ''Victor'' (1951 film), a French drama film
* ''Victor'' (1993 film), a French shor ...
(then Avigdor Mekler). Archival materials contradict Zadkine himself and states that his father did not convert to the Russian Orthodox religion and his mother was not of a Scottish extraction. He had 5 siblings: sisters Mira, Roza and Fania and brothers Mark and Moses.
At the age of fifteen, Zadkine was sent by his father to
Sunderland to learn English and "good manners". He then moved to London and attended lessons at the
Regent Street Polytechnic
The University of Westminster is a public university based in London, United Kingdom. Founded in 1838 as the Royal Polytechnic Institution, it was the first polytechnic to open in London. The Polytechnic formally received a Royal charter in Aug ...
where he considered the teachers to be too conservative.
Zadkine settled in Paris in 1910. He studied at the
École des Beaux-Arts
École des Beaux-Arts (; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth century ...
for six months. In 1911 he lived and worked in
La Ruche. While in Paris he joined the
Cubist
Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...
movement, working in a Cubist idiom from 1914 to 1925. He later developed his own style, one that was strongly influenced by African and Greek art.
Career
In 1921 he obtained French citizenship.
[Ossip Joselyn Zadkine Facts](_blank)
YourDictionary Zadkine served as a stretcher-bearer in the French Army during World War I, and was wounded in action. He spent World War II in the US. His best-known work is probably the sculpture ''
The Destroyed City'' (1951-1953), representing a man without a heart, a memorial to
the destruction of the center of the Dutch city of Rotterdam in 1940 by the Nazi-German
Luftwaffe
The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...
.
He taught sculpture classes at
Académie de la Grande Chaumière
The Académie de la Grande Chaumière is an art school in the Montparnasse district of Paris, France.
History
The school was founded in 1904 by the Catalan painter Claudio Castelucho on the rue de la Grande Chaumière in Paris, near the Acad ...
until 1958, students of his included artists Geula Dagan (1925–2008) and
Genevieve Pezet
Genevieve Pezet, born as Genevieve Beatrice White, and mononymously signed her work Genevieve (December 19, 1913 – January 23, 2009) was an American-born French artist, known for her paintings, ceramics, and sculptures. She was most active from a ...
.
Death and legacy
Zadkine died in Paris in 1967 at the age of 79 after undergoing abdominal surgery
and was
interred
Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objec ...
in the
Cimetière du Montparnasse.
Museums
His former home and studio in Montparnasse is now the
Musée Zadkine
The Musée Zadkine is a museum dedicated to the work of Russian sculptor Ossip Zadkine (1890–1967). It is located near the Jardin du Luxembourg in the 6th arrondissement at 100 bis, rue d'Assas, Paris, France, and open daily except Monday; an a ...
.
When his former wife Prax died, she donated the house and art studio to the City of Paris for the formation of Musée Zadkine.
There is also a Musée Zadkine in the village of
Les Arques
Les Arques (; oc, Las Arcas) is a commune in the Lot department in southwestern France.
Population
See also
*Communes of the Lot department
The following is a list of the 313 communes of the Lot department of France
France ...
in the
Midi-Pyrénées
Midi-Pyrénées (; oc, Miègjorn-Pirenèus or ; es, Mediodía-Pirineos) is a former administrative region of France. Since 1 January 2016, it has been part of the new region of Occitania. It was the largest region of Metropolitan France by ar ...
region of France. Zadkine lived in Les Arques for a number of years, and while there, carved an enormous Christ on the Cross and Pieta that are featured in the 12th-century church which stands opposite the museum.
Personal life
In August 1920, Zadkine married
Valentine Prax
Valentine Henriette Prax, (23 July 1897 – 15 April 1981), was a French expressionist and cubist painter.
Biography
Valentine Henriette Prax was born in Bône (now Annaba). Her father was French of Catalan origin and Vice-Consul of Spain and ...
(1897–1981), an Algerian-born painter of Sicilian and
French-Catalan descent. Prax and Zadkine had no children.
Zadkine was a neighbor in
Montparnasse
Montparnasse () is an area in the south of Paris, France, on the left bank of the river Seine, centred at the crossroads of the Boulevard du Montparnasse and the Rue de Rennes, between the Rue de Rennes and boulevard Raspail. Montparnasse has bee ...
and a friend of
Henry Miller
Henry Valentine Miller (December 26, 1891 – June 7, 1980) was an American novelist. He broke with existing literary forms and developed a new type of semi-autobiographical novel that blended character study, social criticism, philosophical ref ...
and was represented by the character "Borowski" in Miller's novel,
''Tropic of Cancer'' (1934).
His other neighbors there included
Chaïm Soutine
Chaïm Soutine (13 January 1893 – 9 August 1943) was a Belarusian painter who made a major contribution to the expressionist movement while living and working in Paris.
Inspired by classic painting in the European tradition, exemplified by the ...
, and
Tsuguharu Foujita
was a Japanese–French painter and printmaker born in Tokyo, Japan, who applied Japanese ink techniques to Western style paintings. At the height of his fame in Paris, during the 1920s, he was known for his portraits of nudes using an opalescen ...
.
While living in Manhattan during wartime from 1942 to 1945, Zadkine had a relationship with American artist
Carol Janeway
Carol Janeway (born Caroline Bacon Rindsfoos) (1913-1989) was a noted American ceramicist active in New York City in the 1940s and 1950s.
Career
The main venue for her ceramics was Georg Jensen Inc. from 1942 -1949, while Gimbels, I. Magnin, G ...
and created several portraits of her.
The artist's only child, Nicolas Hasle (born 1960), was born after an affair with a Danish woman, Annelise Hasle.
Since 2009, Hasle, a psychiatrist, who had been acknowledged by the artist and had his parentage legally established in France in the 1980s, has been party to a lawsuit with the City of Paris to establish his claim to his father's estate.
Awards
*1950
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...
sculpture prize
*1961 Grand Prix National des Arts
Legacy
* A school in
Rotterdam
Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...
was named after Zadkine, as part of their training they even have ''Zadkine airlines''.
Gallery
File:Ossip Zadkine, 1913, Maternité, painted elmwood, 81 cm, exhibited Salon des Independants, Paris, 1914 Published in Montjolie, 1914.jpg, ''Maternité'', 1913, painted elmwood, 81 cm, exhibited at the 1914 Salon des Indépendants
Salon may refer to:
Common meanings
* Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments
* French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home
* Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment
Arts and entertainment
* Salon (Pa ...
, Paris, Published in Montjoie, 1914
File:Ossip Zadkine, 1918, Femme au violon (Woman with a Violin).jpg, ''Femme au violon (Woman with a Violin)'', 1918 photograph by Pierre Choumoff
File:Ossip Zadkine, 1920, Venus.jpg, ''Venus'', 1920, published in Action: Cahiers individualistes de philosophie et d'art, Volume 1, Number 4, July 1920
File:Musée Zadkine - Entrée de l'atelier.jpg, ''Prometheus'', c. 1930–1940, wooden sculpture
File:Ossip Zadkine Skulptur - Die Gefangenen (2).jpg, ''The prisoners'' (Die Gefangenen), 1943, bronze sculpture
File:Rotterdam zadkine monument.jpg, '' The Destroyed City'' (De Verwoeste Stad), 1951–53, bronze sculpture in Rotterdam, which is now a registered monument.Rijksmonumenten
/ref>
File:Ossip Zadkine-Grosser Orpheus.jpg, ''Orpheus'', 1956, bronze sculpture
File:'Lotophage', bronze sculpture by Ossip Zadkine, 1961-1962, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel.jpg, ''Lotophage'', 1961–62, bronze sculpture, Tel Aviv Museum of Art
Tel Aviv Museum of Art ( he, מוזיאון תל אביב לאמנות ''Muzeon Tel Aviv Leomanut'') is an art museum in Tel Aviv, Israel. The museum is dedicated to the preservation and display of modern and contemporary art from Israel and aroun ...
, Tel Aviv
File:P1040677Beeld Vincent en Theo van Gogh.JPG, '' Vincent and Theo van Gogh'', 1963–64, bronze sculpture, in Zundert, The Netherlands
File:Belgique - Bruxelles - Maison Blomme - 07.jpg, Bas-relief of the Blomme House in Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
representing the architect's instruments
Public collections
Among the public collections holding works by Ossip Zadkine are:
*
Van Abbemuseum
The Van Abbemuseum () is a museum of modern and contemporary art in central Eindhoven, Netherlands, on the east bank of the Dommel River. Established in 1936, the museum is named after its founder, Henri van Abbe, who loved modern art and wante ...
,
Eindhoven
Eindhoven () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, located in the southern province of North Brabant of which it is its largest. With a population of 238,326 on 1 January 2022,[Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...]
*
Museum de Fundatie
Museum de Fundatie () is a museum for the visual arts in Zwolle, Netherlands. Museum de Fundatie forms part of the Hannema-de Stuers Foundation, to which Kasteel het Nijenhuis in Heino also belongs. Museum de Fundatie possesses a collection of vis ...
,
Zwolle
Zwolle () is a city and municipality in the Northeastern Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of Overijssel and the province's second-largest municipality after Enschede with a population of 130,592 as of 1 December 2021. Zwolle is o ...
,
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
*
Tel Aviv Museum of Art
Tel Aviv Museum of Art ( he, מוזיאון תל אביב לאמנות ''Muzeon Tel Aviv Leomanut'') is an art museum in Tel Aviv, Israel. The museum is dedicated to the preservation and display of modern and contemporary art from Israel and aroun ...
,
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
*
Musée Zadkine
The Musée Zadkine is a museum dedicated to the work of Russian sculptor Ossip Zadkine (1890–1967). It is located near the Jardin du Luxembourg in the 6th arrondissement at 100 bis, rue d'Assas, Paris, France, and open daily except Monday; an a ...
See also
*
Musée Zadkine
The Musée Zadkine is a museum dedicated to the work of Russian sculptor Ossip Zadkine (1890–1967). It is located near the Jardin du Luxembourg in the 6th arrondissement at 100 bis, rue d'Assas, Paris, France, and open daily except Monday; an a ...
*
Rue Zadkine
References
* Czwiklitzer, Christophe, ''Ossip Zadkine, le sculpteur-graveure de 1919 à 1967'', Paris, Chez l'auteur, 1967.
* Yamanashi Kenritsu Bijutsukan, ''Ossip Zadkine'', Tokyo, Yomiuri Shinbunsha, 1989.
Andreas Weiland, "(Re-)Discovering Zadkine", in: Art in Society, issue # 10
External links
Zadkine Research Center*
Zadkine Museum in Paris*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zadkine, Ossip
1888 births
1967 deaths
Belarusian sculptors
20th-century Russian sculptors
20th-century Russian male artists
Russian male sculptors
Modern sculptors
Jewish sculptors
Russian Jews
French people of Belarusian-Jewish descent
Russian people of Scottish descent
Belarusian people of British descent
French people of Scottish descent
Alumni of Chelsea College of Arts
Burials at Montparnasse Cemetery
School of Paris
Emigrants from the Russian Empire to France
20th-century French sculptors
French male sculptors