(1891 - 1915)
Born in Belgium and an immigrant to France, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska was one of the earliest abstract sculptors and instrumental in introducing modern art to England during the early years of the 20th century. In 1910 he met Sophie Brzeska, and the couple combined their last names. Later that year they moved to London, where the poet Ezra Pound became the young sculptor’s patron and supporter. Just before World War I, Gaudier-Brzeska joined Wyndham Lewis’s Vorticist movement, which advocated abstraction and an embrace of the machines and energy of modern life. Gaudier-Brzeska’s promising career was cut short when he was killed in combat in World War I.
