Cyprian GODEBSKI, AUTOPORTRET (?), 1866

Tondo, relief, marble, diameter 48 cm, with frame 69 cm
Signed d.: Cyp. Godebski / 1866
Around the inscription: A l'ami d'hier, d'aujordhui et de demain (transl. To a friend yesterday, today and tomorrow)
Provenance: privately owned Marseille
Asking price 29000
Estimate 35000 - 40000

Cyprian GODEBSKI
1835 Méry-sur-Cher - 1909 Paris
Grandson of legionary and poet Cyprian, son of émigré activist François Xavier.He studied at the National Polish School in Batignolles. He mastered the basics of the sculptor's workshop of F. Jouffroy. From 1858 he lived and worked in Lviv. In 1861 he moved to Vienna, where he carried out commissions from the imperial court. In 1863 he was in Paris, and then lived alternately in France and Belgium. In 1870 he stayed in St. Petersburg and taught at the Academy there. After returning to Paris, he ran an art and literary salon there. He was appointed a member of the French National Academy in 1877 and an officer of the Legion of Honor in 1889. From 1897 he served as president of the Art and Literary Circle in Paris.His most important works are the Liberation Monument in Peru's capital Lima (1866-1859) and the Adam Mickiewicz Monument in Warsaw (1898). In his work, he consistently adhered to the principles of academic art based, on the one hand, on a thorough study of nature, and on the other, on referring to the traditions of ancient historical styles.