Ben Uri collection

Work by Enrico Glicenstein

Biography

Sculptor and printmaker Enrico Glicenstein (né Henoch Glicenstein) was born into a Jewish family in Turek, then in the Congress Kingdom of Poland, Russian Empire (now Poland), on 24 May 1870. He studied at the Art Academy in Munich (1890–95), twice winning the Prix de Rome (1894, 1897). Subsequently, he settled in Rome with his wife and took Italian citizenship, becoming known as Enrico Glicenstein. He also established a reputation in Paris, where he won a silver medal in 1900, and upon Rodin’s recommendation, was elected an honorary member of the Société des Beaux-Arts. In 1905 he produced one of his best-known sculptures, Messiah (one of three casts is in the Ben Uri Collection), a seated bronze, exhibited both in Paris and at the Seventh Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland. Between 1906 and 1914 Glicenstein exhibited regularly in Germany, while briefly also heading the Warsaw School of Fine Arts sculpture department. The First World War forced him to return to Warsaw but in 1918 he returned to Switzerland, where he was reunited with his family and where they remained until 1920. In 1921 they moved to England, settling in London until 1924, and Glicenstein was also known as Henryk or Henry, and took pupils including printmaker Sybil Andrews (afterwards, closely associated, from 1925, with the Grosvenor School of Modern Art).

Ben Uri's early minutes record that an extensive event was organised to mark Glicenstein's arrival in England and that the Society subsequently fundraised to buy several of his works, including 'Messiah', which was afterwards displayed in Ben Uri's inaugural exhibition in 1925, a year after Glicenstein's departure. Some of these works were also loaned to the important 'Jewish Art and Antiquities' exhibition at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in 1927. Glicenstein held solo exhibitions in Rome and Venice (1925–28), also exhibiting at the 15th Venice Biennale (1928) but had to leave Italy after refusing to join the Fascist Party and moved permanently to New York. In the USA he exhibited in the galleries of Manhattan, as well as at the Art Institute of Chicago, and in the 1939 Worlds’ Fair. Enrico Glicenstein died in New York, USA on 30 December 1942, after being struck by a cab.

In 1985 The Glicenstein Museum (now the Israel Bible Museum) was founded in Safed. Glicenstein's works are held in public collections including the Ben Uri Collection in London; the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris and the Pompidou Centre, Paris; the Israel Museum; the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna in Rome; the Krakow Museum and the Warsaw National Museum, Poland; and the Brooklyn Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in the USA.

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4 work/s by this artist from the collection are shown below. For a more detailed record and image please click on the link.

The Musicians (Pilichowski and his teacher)

Object type drawing

Accession number 1987-118

Messiah

Object type sculpture

Accession number 1987-121

Portrait of Israel Zangwill

Object type sculpture

Accession number 1987-123

Self-Portrait

Object type print

Accession number 1988-20