Sculpture. Reclining baby boy. Signed: “B. Chatz, Paris 1893.” Mounted on velvet-lined base. Chipped. 14 x 25 x 12 inches.

SCHATZ, BORIS.

Paris, 1893

In 1889 Boris Schatz moved from Warsaw to Paris. During the course of his five years stay, he sculpted some of his best known works, most famously, Mattathias the Maccabee (1894). According to Israel Museum curator Yigal Zalmona in his biographical study “Boris Schatz: The Father of Israeli Art” (2006) almost all of the works sculpted by Schatz during his stay in France have only been preserved in photographs. The only artworks extant from that time are Schatz’s more simple, bronze portrait reliefs (p. 11). Therefore it is most uncommon for a Schatz sculpture of this magnitude to appear at auction. Although the consignor relates that the model for this baby was Hans Herzl (born 1890) son of Zionist leader Theodor Herzl, we know this to be unlikely as Schatz and Herzl first met in 1903. Another theory presented is that the infant is Schatz’s daughter, Angelika, but she was born in 1897.