[MICKIEWICZ Adam]. Medallion with image of Adam Mickiewicz, 1930. Circular medallion with a diameter of 11,...

[MICKIEWICZ Adam]. Medallion with the image of Adam Mickiewicz, 1930. Circular medallion, 11.7 cm in diameter and ca. 3 cm high, made in terracotta by Franz Xavier Black in Paris.
Face of the bard in profile, facing left; inscription "Adam Mickiewicz" on the left side of the perimeter, signature of the artist on the right. Pendant mounted from the back. Good condition.
Franciszek Ksawery Black (1881-1959) - Polish sculptor and medalist active in exile in France and Switzerland. At a young age he emigrated to London, where from 1901 he attended the School of Decorative Wood Carving. From 1903 he was a pupil of Antonin Mercié at the École de Beaux-Arts in Paris. Together with Antoni Wiwulski, he created the design for Krakow's Grunwald Monument, his chiseled figure of a fallen Teutonic knight in full armor. Working with Wiwulski between 1907 and 1910, he visited Cracow many times, where he met Ignacy Jan Paderewski, who, valuing Black's abilities, provided him with a scholarship that enabled him to travel around Europe studying the most important museum collections. He visited the Vatican Museums, the Prado, the British Museum and the Munich Pinacoteca, among others. In 1908, he joined the elite group of foreigners who were admitted to the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. He made his debut at the Salon des Artistes Français, organized by them and held at the Champs de Mars. From then on, the basis of Franz Black's work became portrait sculpture executed in various sculptural genres. Before World War I, he moved to Lausanne and lived there until 1920, a period that is considered by critics to be the most active in all his work. He created portraits, but did not stop sculpting female nudes and genre scenes. In 1920 he returned to Paris, at which time he joined the Société du Salon d'Automne. During this time he carried out commissions from wealthy Parisians and portrayed important figures from Polish national life: Juliusz Słowacki (1927), Adam Mickiewicz (1930), Fryderyk Chopin (1934), Józef Hoene-Wroński (1936-1937), Ewelina Hańska (1932), Władysław Mickiewicz (1926). He also created sculptures of people associated with Ignacy Jan Paderewski, including the statue of League of Nations co-founder Edward Mandell House (1933), which is located in Warsaw's Skaryszewski Park. After the Nazi troops entered France, he went to Grenoble, helped Poles who were active in the French resistance, and was awarded the Commander's Cross of the Order of "Polonia Restituta" for this in 1951 (Wikipedia).