Jacob Loutchansky
- Item number 60
- Artist's name Jacob Loutchansky, 1876-1979
- Item name The Guitar Player
- Technique Bronze
- height 28 cm
- Signed Signed and numbered 9/9.
- Estimate $1200 - 1599
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About The Artist
Born in Vinnytsia, now Ukraine, to a family of eight children. As a child he studied in the "cheider". His father died when he was 14, and Loutchansky was sent to work in a sugar factory.
In 1899, Loutchansky began to study sculpture at the school of arts in Odessa, with the Italian sculptor Yurrini. However, his studies were interrupted when he was enlisted to the Russian army, serving in an artillery battalion based in Rovno, Ukraine. He immigrated to Paris in 1903, where he studied sculpture for a year and a half at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, and became close to the artists of the "Paris School". He spent 1931-1932 in the United States, living in New York and exhibiting his works. When the Second World War broke out, he fled to the south of France, and hid out on a farm. He continued his artwork, and at the end of the war returned to Paris. There, he met with people from the Land of Israel who inspired him to make Aliya and continue his artwork there. In 1948 he arrived in Israel, and settled on Kibbutz Givat Brenner.
Louchansky's realistic work bridges between Classical culture and Modern influences, under the inspiration of early 20th century French sculpture. In his work, many images of animals appear, alongside a naturalistic description of character images.
A large collection of his work was donated to the Chaim Atar Art Museum on Kibbutz Ein Harod. In commemoration of his work, Beit Louchansky was established in 1992, at his studio on Kibbutz Givat Brenner. He died in 1978 in Givat Brenner, at the age of 102.