Ilya Gintsburg

Sculptor, teacher, writer. Born as Elias Ginzburg in the family of Jacob Ginzburg in the town of Grodno (Hrodna) in White Russia (1859). Grew up in Vilna (1860s). Studied at Mark Antokolsky’s studio in St Petersburg (1871–78) and Paris (1880–81) and under Alexander von Bock, Nikolai Laveretsky and Ivan Podozyorov at the Imperial Academy of Arts (1878–86). Awarded a minor silver medal (1883), major silver medal (1884), minor gold medal (1885) and a major gold medal and the title of first-class artist (1886). Academician (1911). Sculpted portraits of famous artists, writers, scientists and public figures (1900s–30s). Designed monuments to Nikolai Gogol in Sorochintsy (1911), Hovhannes Aivazovsky in Theodosia (1930) and Dmitry Mendeleyev in Leningrad (1932) and the tombstones of Vladimir Stasov at the St Alexander Nevsky Monastery (1908), Mark Antokolsky at the Jewish Cemetery in Alexandrovskoe (1909) and Dmitry Mamin-Sibiryak at the Volkovo Cemetery (1915). Taught at the State Free Art Studios/VKhUTEMAS/VKhUTEIN in Petrograd (1918–25), dean of sculpture (1921–23). Died in Leningrad and buried at the Tikhvin Cemetery in the St Alexander Nevsky Monastery (1939). Contributed to exhibitions (from 1882). Contributed to the exhibitions of the Society of Exhibitions of Works of Art (1882), Imperial Academy of Arts (1884–1918), Society of Travelling Art Exhibitions (1895–96), St Petersburg Society of Artists (1898), Fellowship of South Russian Artists (1912), Arkhip Kuinji Society (1929, 1930), Artists of the RSFSR Over Fifteen Years (1917–32) at the Russian Museum in Leningrad (1932–33) and the State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow (1933–34), international exhibitions in Munich (1893, 1895, 1901, 1909, 1913), Berlin (1896), Venice (1897, 1914) and Liège (1905), Exposition Universelle in Paris (1889), World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago (1893), Exposition Universelle in Paris (1900, gold medal), Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St Louis (1904), Esposizione Internazionale in Rome (1911) and one-man shows in Petrograd/Leningrad (1918, 1934).