Günzburg, Ilya Yakovlevich

Russian sculptor; son of Meyer Jacob; born at Grodno May, 1859. The sculptor Antokolski, on his way through Wilna in 1870, happened to notice one of young Günzburg's attempts at sculpture. Struck by the evidence of ability, he took the boy with him to St. Petersburg. Günzburg was then but ten years of age. He studied for a time with Antokolski, Ryepin, and Semiradski, and later accompanied his patron to Italy. On his return to St. Petersburg he entered the high school, and graduated in 1878.

In 1886 he was graduated from the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, winning the small gold medal. In 1889 he was awarded a prize for his exhibits at the Paris Exhibition. Since then his work has appeared regularly among the annual exhibits of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, and also at other European exhibitions. He has executed about twenty studies in child life, besides a number of portraits and statuettes of famous Russians, such as Tolstoi, Rubinstein, Tchaikovski, D. P. Mendeleyev, and others, as well as a number of busts. He exhibited twelve studies at the Paris Exposition of 1900, and was awarded a gold medal.

His elder brother, Boris Yakovlevich Günzburg, is a railway engineer and constructor in the service of the Russian government.

Bibliography:

  * Mir Bozhi, May and June, 1902 (an autobiographical sketch).



H. R. D. G.