Léopold Bernstamm made his name as a sculptor by producing busts of prominent personalities. He was responsible for the representations of Massenet and Berlioz found in Monaco. In 1897, he made a bust of the painter and sculptor Jean-Léon Gérôme, a leading exponent of academic art in the late 19th c...
Léopold Bernstamm made his name as a sculptor by producing busts of prominent personalities. He was responsible for the representations of Massenet and Berlioz found in Monaco. In 1897, he made a bust of the painter and sculptor Jean-Léon Gérôme, a leading exponent of academic art in the late 19th century. This Nu débout by Berstamm is an example of that artistic movement, marked by an affinity for classical antiquity. The sculptor created a number of pieces depicting female figures in groups such as L’Amour Désarmé or Léda et le Cygne. The young woman represented here might perhaps be a Venus or a Nymph, and her pose is a pretext for an exercise in “anatomy” or “academy”. The movement and twisting posture of this nude are reminiscent of Jean-Léon Gérôme’s La Joueuse de boules . Bernstamm produced other female nudes, some seated, others standing, in bronze or ceramic.
Léopold Bernhard Bernstamm was a German sculptor born on 20 April 1859 in Riga (Russia). After moving to Saint Petersburg with his father in 1872, he entered the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in 1874. He became famous in the early 1880s by creating some three hundred portraits of Russian and French personalities. He moved to Paris in 1885, joining the workshop of Antonin Mercié. His speed of execution and keen eye for physiognomy eventually saw him appointed the head sculptor at the Musée Grevin. Léopold Bernhard Bernstamm died on 22 January 1939 in Paris.
