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Augusta Stylianou Gallery 
George Julian Zolnay (July 4, 1863 - May 1, 1949) was a Romanian and American sculptor called the "sculptor of the Confederacy".[1][2] Early years Zolnay was born on July 4, 1863[3] to Ignatius and Carolina Vagan (Peed) Zolnay. By 1849 his father, co-owner of the Zsolnay Porcelaine Manufacturer, had already moved from Pécs, Austrian-ruled Hungary to Bucharest, Wallachia (from 1859 part of the Kingdom of Romania) due to his involvement into the 1848 revolution. Zolnay's birthplace is variously given as being either Bucharest[4][5][6][7][8] or Pécs.[9] He grew up in Bucharest, attending the Saint Sava National College.[10] As George's talents in the arts were noticed in his childhood, he initially wanted to become a violinist, attaining a scholarship at the Music and Drama Conservatory; his father's disapproval kept him from violin, but he did learn to appreciate art. At age twenty he assumed a brief career as a cadet in the Romanian cavalry regiments, where he modelled many military objects and individuals. At his father's wishes, he entered the civil service upon leaving the military, but decided to learn sculpting on the side. His father finally impressed by one of his sculptures, Zolnay studied and graduated from the Royal Art Academy of Bucharest where he learned under Karl Stork.[11] He then went to Paris, France to study under Julien Bouguereau and Alexandre Falguière, as then to the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts of Vienna where he studied under Edmund von Hellmer and Carl Kundmann,[12] and received a Grand Prix for his work. His high ranking at Vienna gave him a grant for his own art studio, and a cash allowance.[13][14][15] Move to the United States In 1892 the U.S. consul-general to Vienna convinced Zolnay to work at the Columbian Exposition. He intended to return home, but became "enamored" with the United States, and chose New York City for his new home in 1894, eventually achieving American citizenship. He became a favorite sculptor of Southerners in 1897 after he sculpted a statue of Sam Davis, a Confederate spy who was executed; as no pictures of Davis survived, Zolnay based the likeness on Davis' relatives.[16][17] Zolnay was one of the eight men led by Charles DeKay who founded the National Arts Club,[18] becoming its first vice-president.[19] He was also the president of the Saint Louis Plastic Artists Association and director of the Chicago School of Fine Arts.[20] He received renown for his work for the Chicago World's Fair. At the University of Virginia he designed the pediment on an academic building, and crafted a bust of Edgar Allan Poe. He became active in Missouri, becoming the art department director of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1903, and in 1909 he became the director of the Art Institute at University City, Missouri.[21][22][23] In 1913 he moved his studios to Washington, D.C.[24] Besided his sculptural activity, he also delivered lectures on Romania, illustrated with traditional Romanian music and by lantern slides, at the Smithsonian Institution[25] and did illustration work for the two volumes of the book The Roumanians and Their Lands[26] issued by the Roumanian Relief Committee of America in 1919. He married Abbie R. Gillim November 23, 1902.[27] Legacy King Carol I of Romania awarded Zolnay the Knight's Cross of the Order of the Crown.[28] Notable figures he did included a statue of Jefferson Davis at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia,[29] the Sequoyah statue at the National Statuary Hall Collection,[30] (a commission that he inherited from Vinnie Ream after her death. Zolnay worked primarily on the face of the figure He also created the bas relief on Ream's grave monument, located in Arlington Cemetery)[31] the statue of Tudor Vladimirescu in Târgu-Jiu,[32] Romania and a bust of poet Grigore Alexandrescu.[33] Notes 1. ^ Brent p.1 References * The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. J. T. White company. 1900. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ==--==--==
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