BIOGRAPHY  

Jacques Zwobada was born in Neuilly on 6 August 1900. His family was of Slavic descent on the side of his father, who ran a house-painting business, Parisian and Picard on his mother's. The Zwobadas have been living in France since the 15th century. Jacques spent a characteristically bourgeois childhood and adolescence in Neuilly and attended classes at the Lycée Pasteur. His passion for drawing was aroused at the age of seventeen. Shortly thereafter he was galvanised by his discovery of the work of Rodin which was to mark his entire life.

May 1918

Admitted to Jean-Antoine Injalbert's sculpture class at the Ecole des Beaux Arts.

May 1923

Definite admission to the Ecole des Beaux Arts.

1925 - 1926

Although still a student, he was commissioned to create a monument to the composer André Caplet in Le Havre. The work was destroyed by bombs in 1944.

1926

Gold medal at the Exposition des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes of 1926.

1928 :
16 april :
Premier Logiste for the Prix de Rome competition.

10 juillet :

Deuxième second Grand Prix de Rome.

1929

Together with the sculptor René Letourneur, is awarded the first prize in an international competition for the Monument to Bolivar in Quito, Ecuador. 
Maillol chaired the jury. Zwobada and Letourneur took four years to complete a full-scale version of this colossal monument in the studio they established in Fontenay-aux Roses.

Zwobada worked all his life in Fontenay.

1933 - 1936

Acquisition by Museum of Belfort: 2 bronze busts, 1 plaster head, 1 plaster low-relief, 1 clay torso.

1934

Appointed professor at the École des Arts Appliqués. He remained in this position until 1962.

1935

Begins executing numerous busts.

1944

Chargé de Cours at the École Normale Supérieure de l'Enseignement Technique.

1945 - 1948

Teaches at the Académie de la Grande-Chaumière.

1948 - 1952

Teaches composition and drawing at the Académie Julian.

1948 - 1950

Designated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to teach at the Caracas School of Fine Arts and to serve as artistic advisor to the government of Venezuela.
Zwobada received the 1948 Grand Prize for Sculpture at the annual sculpture salon of Caracas.

1950

Two French architects working in Caracas suggest that Zwobada, who has just returned to Paris, participate in a competition for a monument to be raised to the national hero of Venezuela, General Miranda. In his studio in Fontenay, Zwobada executes or reworks several models for a large frieze of animated figures. 
The project was never executed.

3 april 1956
Death of his wife, Antonia. Zwobada decides to raise a monument to her memory in the cemetery of Mentana, near Rome. He asks his friend the architect Paul Herbé to design it. He wishes to surround it with all his major sculptures. This project was only partly executed and remains ongoing.

1962

Appointed Professeur correcteur at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. 

Made Chevalier des Arts et Lettres.

1963

Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur.
Executes three tapestries at the Pinton workshop in Aubusson.

Zwobada dies in Paris on 6 September.
He is buried beside his wife in the tomb in Mentana.