Cyprian Godebski (sculptor) - Biography

Biography

Godebski received his art education at the Paris studio of sculptor François Jouffroy. He lived and worked in Lwow from 1858 and in 1861 moved to Vienna where he worked on commissions from the Imperial court of Austro-Hungary. In 1863 Godebski moved to Paris again, and lived alternately in France and in Belgium. In 1870 he accepted the nomination for the professorship at the Russian Academy of Arts and moved to St. Petersburg for several years. He was in Warsaw in 1870 and 1875.

Cyprian married the half-Belgian, half-Russian Zofia Servais, and became the father of Maria Zofia Godebska, later known as pianist Misia Sert who later had considerable influence within Parisian artistic circles. Her mother, a daughter to a noted musician Adrien-François Servais, had died giving birth to her on 30 March 1872 while in Tsarskoye Selo, where Godebski was engaged in reconstruction of the tsarist palace. He married again, a sculptor Matylda Rosen, and while in Warsaw in 1875 run an artistic salon with her for the local elite. Following his return to Paris, Godebski organized a new popular artistic and literary salon. In 1877, he was nominated as member of the French National Academy, and in 1889 received the medal and title of the Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. Since 1897 he was the first president of the Artistic and Literary Club of Paris.