Léopold Bernhard Bernstamm

Léopold Bernhard Bernstamm (April 20, 1859 - January 22, 1939), also written as Léopold-Bernhard Bernstam, Léopold Bernard Bernstamm, or Leopold Adolfovich Bernstam, was a Russian sculptor and painter active in France and Russia.

Biography

Bernstamm was born in Riga, now Latvia, there entered the studio of Prof. David Jensen at age 13, and at 14 entered the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts of Saint Petersburg, where he won prizes. In the early 1880s he made about thirty busts of celebrated Russians including Fedor Dostoevsky (from death mask, 1881), Denis Fonvizin, Alexander Ostrovsky for the foyer of the Alexandrinsky Theater, and Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin (erected at the writer's grave in 1900). These busts established his reputation. He then spent 1884 in Rome and Florence, continuing his studies under Professor Rivalti.

In 1885 he settled in Paris, often returning to Saint Petersburg. His sculptures of eminent Frenchmen soon made him famous, including portraints of François Coppée, Paul Déroulède, Gustave Flaubert, Ludovic Halévy, Ernest Renan, Victorien Sardou, and Émile Zola. He also made portraits of Czar Nicholas II of Russia and members of the Imperial family (1896), Anton Rubinstein (1901), and Alexander Pushkin (1911). His last work for Saint Petersburg was the bust of Czar Alexander III of Russia (erected in the Russian Museum garden, removed in 1918). All told, he painted approximately 300 portraits of Russian and European representatives of culture, science and politics, and sculpted many busts and monuments. Bernstamm was made chevalier of the Légion d'honneur in 1891.

References

* [http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?letter=B&artid=898 Jewish Encyclopedia article]
* [http://encspb.ru/en/article.php?kod=2804030235 Saint Petersburg Encyclopedia article]
* [http://www.artnet.com/artist/606615/leopold-bernhard-bernstamm.html Artnet entry]