Léopold Zborowski Explained

Léopold Zborowski
Birth Name:Léopold Zborowski
Birth Date:10 March 1889
Birth Place:Zaleszczyki, Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Austria-Hungary (now Ukraine)
Death Place:Paris, France
Nationality:Polish
Occupation:Art dealer
Years Active:1914–1930

Léopold Zborowski (1889–1932) was a Polish poet, writer and art dealer.[1]

He was born in Zaleszczyki, in what was then Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria of Austria-Hungary (now a part of Ukraine), to a Jewish family.

Zborowski and his wife Anna (Hanka Zborowska) were contemporaries with Parisian artists such as Chaïm Soutine, André Derain and Amedeo Modigliani, who painted Zborowski's portraits. Léopold Zborowski was Amedeo Modigliani's primary art dealer and friend during the artist's final years, organizing his expositions and letting the Leghorn (Livorno) artist use his house as an atelier. He also was the first art dealer of René Iché, Chaïm Soutine, Maurice Utrillo, Émile Savitry, Marc Chagall and André Derain. There are three portraits of him by Modigliani, such as a 17" by 10" artwork sold for $1,464,000 at Sotheby's in 2003.[2]

As Modigliani's art dealer, Zborowski accumulated a small fortune, which he lost during the Great Depression of the 1930s, ultimately dying poor in Paris in 1932 of a heart attack. His widow was forced to sell his whole collection, which is now completely dispersed.[3]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Index of Historic Collectors and Dealers of Cubism - Zborowski, Jean. Johnson. Samuel. July 2017. Metropolitan Museum of Art. 9 April 2021.
  2. Web site: Amedeo Modigliani: Portrait de Léopold Zborowski. 2003. Sotheby's. 12 April 2021.
  3. Book: Modigliani, Jeanne . Zborowski . Modigliani . 1958 . 77–80 . 9785881730345 . https://books.google.com/books?id=Me0VAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA77 .