1888-1975

The son of a well-known Russian scientist, Gleb W. Derujinsky studied law and graduated in 1912 from the University of St. Petersburg. Simultaneously, he attended drawing school, gaining praise for his artistic aptitude. He traveled to Paris to study under renowned sculptors, entering the Imperial Academy of Arts in 1913, where he participated in exhibitions, received several prizes and was nominated for a Prix de Rome. After the Russian Revolution in 1917, he fled to Crimea and then to New York as a sailor on a cargo boat. By the early 1920s, Derujinsky was an active member of New York's art scene. He was elected as a member of the National Sculpture Society, became a teacher at the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design, and several of his commissions were awarded medals. For the 1939 World's Fair, he created a fountain group called "Europa and the Bull". Among Derujinsky's most known pieces are the busts of Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt, as well as pianists Alexander Siloti, Sergei Prokoflev and Sergei Rachmaninoff, for which he was given the Anna Hyatt Huntington Prize at the National Academy of Design in 1949. Photo: "Woman with Harp" by Gleb Derujinsky.