The Russian sculptor Ossip Zadkine was born in 1888 in Vitebsk, Belarus, also known as the birthplace of another famous artist Marc Chagall. Throughout his life Zadkine has always claimed that his date of birth was 1890 but in recent research the Zadkine Research Center has found evidence that his date of birth is 1888.

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Early years in Paris

In 1903 Zadkine was sent to London by his father and in 1910 he settled in Paris. During the First World War, in 1916, Zadkine enlisted voluntarily in the Russian ambulance corps. In Paris between 1914 and 1925, Zadkine first developed a Cubist style and later developed his own visual language, mainly inspired by Greek mythology with themes such as Leda and the swan and the twin half-brothers Castor and Pollux.

Flight to America

At the beginning of the Second World War, Zadkine fled to the USA where he stayed in New York City. In the USA Zadkine had a relationship with American artist Carol Janeway and he created several portraits of her. During his stay in the United States, his work became gloomy and depressed, he missed his homeland France. Zadkine has traveled extensively throughout his life and exhibited his work in many countries including the Netherlands, Belgium, Japan, Germany, Italy and Greece.

Monumental sculpture

Zadkine's most famous work is probably the war memorial in Rotterdam, The Netherlands 'La ville detruite' or ‘The destroyed city’. This monumental bronze statue is a Dutch national monument and is 650 cm high and was unveiled in 1953. Zadkine was fascinated by the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh. In the 1950s and 1960s he made various sculptures and works on paper with the subject of Van Gogh and created large monuments in Zundert, the Netherlands and Auvers sur Oise in southern France.

Ossip Zadkine Research