Mark Antokolski

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Mark Matveevich Antokolski (Марк Матвеевич Антокольский in Russian; born in 1843 in the city of Vilna, present-day Vilnius, Lithuania, died in 1902 in Frankfurt, Germany), was a Russian sculptor who was admired for psychological complexity of his historical images and panned for occasional lapses into sentimentalism.

He was born as Mordukh Matysovich Antokolsky. Antokolski studied in the Imperial Academy of Arts (1862–68). He first began with Jewish themes, statues: "Jewish Tailor", "Nathan The Wise", "Inquisition's Attack against Jews", "The Talmudic Debate".

From 1868-1870, Mark Antokolski lived in Berlin. His statue of "Ivan the Terrible" (1870) was purchased for the Hermitage by Tsar Alexander II of Russia. The Russian tsar approved his work and awarded the sculptor the title of academic. Mark Antokolski believed that sculpture was a social and humane ideal. In order to improve his failing health, he moved to the Italian resorts in 1871 and settled in Paris 6 years later.

Every year Antokolski would come back to his native town of Vilnius during his summer holidays. Namely here he created his first significant work, high relief "A Jewish Tailor," during his summer holidays of 1864. Art critic E.Kuznecova evaluated this work as follows (p. 35): "An exhausted old man sticking out of the semi-dark window of his shabby house, threading a needle with his trembling fingers. His face is full of tension and deep concentration. The look of tired, weak, and his old eyes are focused on the thread. Years pass by and the tailor finds it more and more difficult to manage this seemingly non-specific task. The bony body of the old man in rags, tired thin face, broken frame of the window fixed with plaques - all this marks hopeless poverty. Expressive and true view raises sympathy and compassion". Giving his explanations of why the sculpture was created in Vilnius, art critic A.Alferov ("M.Antokolskij". M., 1903, in Russian, p.12) indicated that such a plot could not have been created in the Academy; he had to live in the native Jewish surrounding, he "had to see constantly both the dirt and poverty of a provincial Jew in order to capture the moment of grey life of a poor Jewish tailor in his carving." The work of the young sculptor provoked a lot of discussions in the Academy in Petersburg. On 28 October 1864, the Council of the Academy decided to award Antokolski with the Small Silver Medal for the "Tailor" by the majority of votes. That was the first artist's victory! While in Vilnius the following year, Antokolski created another high relief - "A Stingy Man," which is sometimes referred to as "A Stingy Jew Counting his Coins". The artist was born into a poor family and saw how his father's financial situation improved. The sculpture might have reflected Antokolski' feelings to his native town of Vilnius, and firstly to his father. This work as well as the first sculpture was positively evaluated by V.Stasov who saw "the features of the simple truth, the things that, previously, nobody dared to think about in sculpture" in the works of the artist. In 1865, the high relief "Stingy Man" was awarded the Grand Silver Medal of the Academy. In later years the sculptor continued working on the Jewish topic, which developed in to complex, yet unfinished compositions: "Talmud Dispute" (1866-1868) and "Inquisition Attacks the Jews" (1868-1869). Vasilij Stasov who soon became M.Antokolski' close friend highly appreciated the first works by the sculptor. In the article "Jewish Kin in the European Works of Art" ("Jewish Library". Vol.III, St Petersburg, 1872, in Russian, pp.815-819), he wrote: "In a very short period of time, this artist has brought up his bold talent, won appreciation of everyone, and now takes an exceptional and exclusively honourable place among his fellow artists: in a wonderful manner, he denies those eternal superstitions in Europe [...] that the Jews are not gifted for arts [...]. Nobody will ever deny the gift of Jews for science, medicine, acting, industry, trade, different crafts, but nobody would ever recognise that the Jews have the same gift for art. Sculptor Antokolski has become the first proof, great and undeniable." V.Stasov singled out "Inquisition" out of M.Antokolski' "Jewish works". He said that Antokolski recreated not only a wonderful scene out of the living Jewish prototypes and characters, but also boldly extended the frames and limits of sculpture by using the play of the light. According to V.Stasov, the novelty and bold artistic means merged with the power of talent brought new unheard results, and he considered Antokolski' "Inquisition" the "most wonderful, most specific, and important piece of art for the future". The "Inquisition" was M.Antokolski' last work on the Jewish topic in his student years: "These works contain very small but very characteristic figures, full of folk types and expressions, and all of them were created in Vilnius during his summer holidays from 1863 to 1869, and they were based on a national element relevant to the place where Antokolski was born and grew up", wrote M.Antokolski' student, future famous sculptor Ilja Ginzburg (V.Stasov, p. XVII). According to the review of the Art Academy, Mark Antokolski was granted personal name of honorary citizen "for wonderful knowledge of art" on 7 April 1870. This fact was also entered into an archival record. Moreover, an inscription remained that Morduchas was excluded from the revision register of Antakalnis Jewish community as a person awarded the name of a honorary citizen.

In 1871 Antokolski started his first "Russian" sculpture "Ivan the Menace" which made an enormous impression on all valuators and connoisseurs of art. When Tsar Alexander II saw the sculpture he asked to make its bronze copy and (what is most important!) allocated the sculptor advance payment of 4 000 roubles. Pavel Tretjakov ordered a marble copy for his gallery. "I went to bed poor and was born rich next morning. I was unknown yesterday, and today I am in fashion," wrote M.Antokolski. The funds received enabled the artist to resolve his personal problems, too. In 1871 (in Vilnius) Mark Antokolski got acquainted with beautiful Jelena (Gene), daughter of the rich Vilnius merchant Judelis Girðovièius Apatovas (ca 1800-1868) and Michlë Benjaminovna (maiden name Kacenelenbougen). The sculptor's wedding took place in Vilnius and was recorded in the parish register: on 6 September 1872, the marriage between the bachelor academy graduate Mark Matvejevièius Antokolski, 31 years of age, and Jelena Judelevna Apatova, heir and honorary citizen, 20 years of age, was registered in Vilnius Town. An interesting thing is that the entry about the birth of Mark Antokolski' wife was made in the 1849 parish register of Vilnius Jewish community only in 1873 following the decision of Vilnius Town Duma. The document witness that Jelena Apatova was born on 3 September 1849. It is likely that the father of Jelena Judelis Apatovas failed to register the birth of his daughter on time, that was often the case with Jewish families upon a girl's birth. When Jelena married, she decided to leave Vilnius together with her husband. In order to get a passport she had to submit her birth certificate. We believe that the entry on her birth was made upon the decision of the government a number of years later. M.Antokolski used 4 000 roubles for the "Ivan the Menace" to buy half of a big house in Vilnius the other part of which had previously belonged to his wife. In 1876, upon his regular visits to Vilnius, Antokolski rebuilt the house. At present, this house is U?upio Street No.19. A noteworthy fact is that Antokolski signed all the documents: "Mark Matysovièius Antokolski". After 1876, Antokolski was a rare visitor to his native town due to illnesses, work, and exhibitions in Paris and Italy, which took almost all of his time. However, the artist did not break his links with Jewish life. Concern over his nation urged M.Antokolski to return back to his work "Inquisition Attacks the Jews," started 30 years before in Vilnius. Simultaneously, the sculptor created his last piece of work - monument to Katherine II whose construction was planned in Vilnius. However, with the chronic stomach disease getting severer, the artist suddenly passed away on 9 July (27 June according to the old calendar) in Bad-Homburg (Germany). The last work was completed by I.Ginzburg after the sculptor's death. Unfortunately, the monument has not survived. It was decided to bury M.Antokolski in Petersburg. The train with a special carriage went via Vilnius where he was waited for. That is how Ilja Ginzburg described Antokolski' last meeting with his native town: "M.M.-s [Antokolski'] widow and children impatiently waited for the train to arrive at Vilnius, the homeland of the beloved husband and father. When a considerable distance was still left for the train to cover to the station, I looked through the window of the carriage and I was touched by an unusual scene: a crowd of people flooded the whole station and it seemed that it was impossible for the train to make to the station [...]. The train hardly got into the station by seemly squeezing into the black crowd of people [...]. The deputies with the head of the town at their lead and the delegations from different societies were waiting for us. A multitude of wreaths was laid on the coffin, the Jewish cantors sang [...]. The mourning ceremony lasted for the whole hour, deputies made speeches [...]. Thousands of people bowed their heads to the widow who could not get to herself and was crying [...]. "No, no, I could not have imagined anything of the kind," said the touched widow when the train moved." Mark Antokolski was buried on 18 (6 according to the old calendar) July 1902 in Preobrazenskaja Cemetery in Petersburg.

In Rome, Antokolski completed the statue of Peter the Great for Peterhof in 1872, with its copies for Taganrog and Archangelsk. In 1878 Antokolski exhibited most of his works at the Paris Universal exposition, and received the Grand Prize. In 1880, the personal exhibition of the artist was held in Saint Petersburg, and he was given the rank of professor. Mark Antokolski left for Paris the same year, and stayed in the French capital until the end of his life. He realised here the following works: "Spinoza" (1881), "Mephistopheles"(1884), "Yaroslav the Wise"(1889), "Nestor the Chronicler"(1889) and "Yermak Timofeevich" (1891).

As disease of the artist progressed, he had to spend part of his time in Lake Maggiore in Italy, but he worked most of the time in Paris. Mark Antokolski died in Frankfurt am Main in 1902.

Ivan the Terrible, 1871	Death of Socrates, 1875	Christ before the people, 1878	Angel
Yermak Timofeyevich	Alexander Polovtsov, 1880ies	Spinoza, 1882	Nestor the Chronicler, 1890
The Peter the Great Monument in the city of Taganrog, 1898	Mermaid, 1900	Portrait by Ilya Repin, 1914