Jacques Lipchitz, Large Color French Cubist Lithograph Tree of Life Signed Ltd Ed. Sculpture Study, 1972

Chaim Jacob Lipchitz, 1891-1973, was born in Lithuania and came of age in Paris during the early 20th century, where he was active in the avante-garde community of Pablo Picasso, Amadeo Modigliani, Diego Rivera, Chaim Soutine, and Juan Gris. Art historian H. H. Arnason, who ranked Lipchitz with Picasso and Marc Chagall, wrote, “Lipchitz, as a pure sculptor, is …unquestionably one of the greatest sculptors of this century.”

Lipchitz’ monumental 1927 bronze Joie de Vivre (a gift of Mrs. Mark C. Steinberg) is displayed at the Steinberg Skating Rink in Forest Park. The St. Louis Art Museum loaned two of Lipchitz’ works, the 1923-25 Large Bather (gift of Morton D. May) and the 1926-30 Figure (gift of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Pulitzer) to the St. Louis Bicentennial Sculpture Exhibition at the Garden in 1985. The exhibition also included a 1940 Lipchitz’ Mother and Child from an anonymous donor. The 1926-30 Figure was displayed at the Garden again for the Spring Sculpture Festival in 1972.
The architect Philip Johnson asked Lipchitz to make a wall sculpture to be placed on the brick chimney over a fireplace of a guest house owned by Mrs. John D. Rockefeller III on West 53rd Street in New York. Lipchitz decided to develop the piece from his Pegasus designs and call it Birth of the Muses in honor of the Rockefellers’ interest in the arts. In 1950 he completed the work as a bronze relief five feet high. It was installed as planned and later was acquired by Lincoln Center. He participated in the Flight portfolio (serigraph and lithograph works) organized by Varian Fry to help refugees in the hope of a new life. Eugene Berman, Alexander Calder, Adolph Gottlieb, Wifredo Lam, Joan Miro and Robert Motherwell all contributed artwork. In 1912 he exhibited at the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts and the Salon d’Automne with his first solo show held at Léonce Rosenberg’s Galerie L’Effort Moderne in Paris in 1920. In 1922 he was commissioned by the Barnes Foundation in Merion, Pennsylvania to execute five bas-reliefs.In 1920 Lipchitz held his first solo exhibition, at Léonce Rosenberg’s Galerie L’Effort Moderne in Paris. In his later years Lipchitz became more involved in his Jewish faith (he produced several judaica themed artworks including ones with Hebrew calligraphy). He began abstaining from work on Shabbat and put on Tefillin daily, at the urging of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Schneerson.
Beginning in 1963 he returned to Europe for several months of each year and worked in Pietrasanta, Italy. He developed a close friendship with fellow sculptor, Fiore de Henriquez. In 1972 his autobiography, co-authored with H. Harvard Arnason, was published on the occasion of an exhibition of his sculpture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Jacques Lipchitz died in Capri, Italy. His body was flown to Jerusalem, Israel for burial. His Tuscan Villa Bozio was donated to Chabad-Lubavitch in Italy and currently hosts an annual Jewish summer camp in its premises.

The edition was commissioned by Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, to commemorate the creation of the “Tree of Life” bronze sculpture monument on Mt. Scopus in Jerusalem Printed at the studio workshop of Il Bisonte, Florence on Magnani paper.