Mark Antokolsky

Sculptor, teacher, writer on art. Great-uncle of poet Pavel Antokolsky (1896–1978). Born as Marduk in the family of a poor Jewish innkeeper called Matvei who lived in the district of Antakalnis in the city of Vilna (now Vilnius) in Lithuania (1842). Studied under Nikolai Pimenov and Johann Reimers at the Imperial Academy of Arts (1862–70). Academician (1871). Lived and worked in Rome (1871–77) and Paris (1877–1902). Sculpted Christ on Trial before the People (1874–78). Awarded the Légion d’honneur at the Exposition Universelle in Paris (1878). Corresponding member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris and Accademia di Belle Arti in Urbino (1878). Professor (1880), full member of the Imperial Academy of Arts (1893). Honoured at the Exposition Universelle in Paris (1900). Died in the German resort of Bad Homburg vor der Höhe near Frankfurt-on-Main and buried at the Jewish Cemetery in the village of Alexandrovskoe outside St Petersburg (1902). Contributed to exhibitions, including the Exposition Universelle in Paris (1878) and one-man shows at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St Petersburg (1880, 1893).