The Russian Sculptor and Graphic Artist Ghana Orloff

This portrait was made in Paris, where the Danish sculptor Adam Fischer lived from 1913 to 1933 with his wife, the painter Ellen Fischer. Originally a painter himself, Adam Fischer only turned to sculpture after arriving in Paris. Drawing inspiration from movements such as Cubism, he developed a stringent, simplified, geometric idiom and became an important innovator of Danish sculpture. Between 1900 and 1940, Paris was an international centre of art that attracted artists from large parts of the world. Chana Orloff, a draughtsperson and sculptor born in what was then the Russian Empire (now Ukraine) was part of this milieu. Orloff made portraits as well as human and animal figures in materials such as stone, marble, bronze and, above all, wood. Fisher’s portrait can thus be seen as both a depiction of a well-respected fellow artist and as an expression of Fischer’s artistic position in 1916, at which point he aimed to simplify his subject matter and find the essence of each form.