Lot 468: Bust by Moses J. Ezekiel, Marble

Moses Jakob Ezekiel (American, 1844-1917), titled The Dying Alexander, inscribed Roma on back, signed and dated 1906 on back; ht. 17.5 in.

Although he spent the last forty years of his life in Rome, Italy, Ezekiel was born on Oct. 28, 1844 of Spanish-Jewish parents in Richmond, VA. While studying at the Virginia Military Institute, Ezekiel fought for the Confederate Army in the Civil War and served in the Cadet Batallion at the Battle of New Market. After graduating from VMI in 1866, he studied human anatomy at the University of Virginia for a short time before moving to Cincinnati to be with family and to attend J. Insco Williams' Art School, in 1868. In Cincinnati, Ezekiel failed to gain an apprenticeship with the notable Ohio sculptor, Thomas D. Jones, so instead traveled abroad to Berlin where he studied at the Royal Academy with Albert Wollf and Rudolf Siemering. During the Franco-Prussian war, Ezekiel served as a French spy for supplemental income and after a short imprisonment, he came to Italy and began producing the work for which he is most notably remembered.

Ezekiel produced his first sculptural work while still in Cincinnati, a self-directed study of a bust that he exhibited in the city. The artist garnered the Prix de Rome for his colossal bust of Washington that gained him entrance into the Society of Artists in Berlin, the first non-German recipient. In the early 1870s, the Israelite Order of B'nai B'rith invited him to submit a monument to be erected at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. Ezekiel made this first major public commission Religious Liberty in Italy and exhibited it at the Centennial Exposition in 1876. He also exhibited three of his Berlin sculptures at the Industrial Exposition around the same time.

In 1874, he settled permanently in Rome and by 1879 had built a studio and living space in the converted ruins of the Roman Baths of Diocletian. Here he created many commissions, including this bust, The Dying Alexander, until 1910. The Dying Alexander is executed in the style of Lysipus, the Greek sculptor from the 4th century B.C. Ezekiel often appropriated the Greek sculptor's heroic and expressive handling of the figure for his own sculptures. During his tenure in Rome, Ezekiel was knighted Sir Moses Ezekiel by both Germany and Italy. At the time of his death in 1917, Ezekiel was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. His works are held by institutions, private collectors and as public city monuments. For example, the Cincinnati Art Museum houses the Washington bust, the Corcoran Art Gallery holds several statues, including one of Titian and Da Vinci and the University of Virginia has a sculpture of Thomas Jefferson. Other notable works include Virginia Mourning Her Dead a memorial for fallen soldiers that is housed at VMI.

Information obtained from:
Mary Syre Haverstock, Jeannette Mahoney Vance and Brian L. Meggitt, eds., Artists in Ohio, 1787-1900: A Biographical Dictionary, (Kent, OH/London, UK: The Kent State University Press), 276-277.

Obituary "American Sculptor, Moses Ezekiel, Dies" New York Times, March 28, 1917.

Some discoloration to marble.