Preface

As a child I was surrounded by my grandfather’s sculptures. There was the black ceramic reclining nude that was always atop the family television set, which now reclines atop mine. There Was the statue of Little Eve, a child with a serpent wrapped around her feet offering an apple. The model for Little Eve was my mother at two years old, and eighty years later the statue resides with her in Florida.

When my grandfather suffered a heart attack and moved in with my family, we gathered the works from his apartment at 33 East 22nd Street in Manhattan. With a borrowed truck my father, my brother, a cousin and I transported them to our suburban home, my brother and I rode in the rear of the truck with our cache of statues.

Young Josephu, circa 1917

         
A room was added onto the rear of our suburban home for Josephu’s studio when he recovered. He never rose up to working again and died in 1970. This studio became a showplace for these 15 statues. I was always in awe of how people would respond when they saw the pieces. Everyone felt the need to touch the work. This was the same response of bronze smith Bill Gold who would later make reproductions of selected pieces.

        
I grew up listening to the stories of how the Josephu family emigrated from Vienna during the early days of World War II. Of family that was left behind and never heard from again ... of the offers from Hitler ... of Josef’s famous friends in both Vienna and the United States.

        

In 1985 I attempted to research Josephu’s history with little success. I wrote to dozens of libraries, museums and schools in Vienna and uncovered nothing about the artist. During a particular stormy day in the winter of 2001, as I viewed the one bronze reproduction that survived the thievery of an amateur art dealer, I began a second attempt at researching Josephu. Only this time the response was amazing, and the interest in my research was encouraging.

         
There also seemed to be help coming from an eerie source. Shortly thereafter I received an email from the Midwest from a person who had just bought two Florian Josephu bronzes at an auction. (Florian was Josef’s brother.) A distant cousin, Georg Klein, found me on the internet while researching his grand-uncle, Florian. Then came a startling a communication from Vienna ... family my mother left behind were still alive!

          

With their help, along with various research facilities in the US and abroad, I have been able to compile this biographical information on the Brothers’ Josephu, Josef and Florian. I will admit to the frustration of not being able to find more about Josef’s American work. Although he lived and worked in New York for over thirty years, there seems to be little record of his art. Might there be another breakthrough or discovery just around the corner?