Naoum Aronson (1872–1943) was a sculptor who lived for most of his life in Paris. He is known principally for his busts of important leaders, including

Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. He is one of the most revered figures in the history of Western music; his works rank among the most performed of the classical music repertoire ...

Louis Pasteur Louis Pasteur (, ; 27 December 1822 – 28 September 1895) was a French chemist, pharmacist, and microbiologist renowned for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination, Fermentation, microbial fermentation, and pasteurization, the la ...

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Tolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; ,Throughout Tolstoy's whole life, his name was written as using Reforms of Russian orthography#The post-revolution re ...

Grigori Rasputin Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin ( – ) was a Russian Mysticism, mystic and faith healer. He is best known for having befriended the imperial family of Nicholas II of Russia, Nicholas II, the last Emperor of all the Russias, Emperor of Russia, th ...

, and

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

Biography

Aronson was born to a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

family in

Krāslava Krāslava (; , , , , ) is a town and the administrative centre of Krāslava Municipality. The town lies on the Daugava, upstream and to the east of the city of Daugavpils. Most of the town is situated on the right coast of the Daugava. As defined ...

, in the

Vitebsk Governorate Vitebsk Governorate (, ) was an administrative-territorial unit ('' guberniya'') of the Russian Empire, with the seat of governorship in Vitebsk. It was established in 1802 by splitting Belarusian Governorate and existed until 1924. Today most ...

of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

(present-day

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

) in 1872. He studied art at the Vilna Art School before moving to Paris, where he would live for 50 years. He maintained six galleries in Paris, but kept his prize pieces, including the bust of Rasputin, in his

Montparnasse Montparnasse () is an area in the south of Paris, France, on the left bank of the river Seine, centred at the crossroads of the Boulevard du Montparnasse and the Rue de Rennes, between the Rue de Rennes and boulevard Raspail. It is split betwee ...

studio. After the German invasion of France in 1940, he was forced to flee the country. When he arrived in New York City as a refugee in March 1941 aboard the liner '' Serpa Pinto'', he had little more than some photographs of the sculptures that he had left behind in France. He died two years later in his

Upper West Side The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper We ...

studio at the age of 71.

Selected works

Image:Aronson GirlHead.JPG, Head of a Girl () Image:BEETHovenAROlson.jpg,

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. He is one of the most revered figures in the history of Western music; his works rank among the most performed of the classical music repertoire ...

(1905) Image:Ivan Panin-by-Aronson-1916.jpg, Ivan Panin, biblical numerologist (1916) Image:PikiWiki Israel 7933 quot;friendshipquot; in petakh tikva.jpg, ''Friendship''

External links

ArtGiverny article
with more biographical information and images of Aronson and his works, some of which are from the archives of the

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) is the United States' official memorial to the Holocaust, dedicated to the documentation, study, and interpretation of the Holocaust. Opened in 1993, the museum explores the Holocaust through p ...

U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum archives
website has several photographs related to Aronson
Russian Wikisource article
with images of sculptures * Russian Wikipedia article with more biographical information

References

1872 births 1943 deaths People from Krāslava People from Dvinsky Uyezd 19th-century Latvian Jews 19th-century Latvian artists Emigrants from the Russian Empire to France Sculptors from the Russian Empire French emigrants to the United States 20th-century French sculptors French male sculptors {{France-sculptor-stub