Isabella Karsnitsky

Sculptor

Born 3 September 1902 in Kaunas (then Kovna), Lithuania. Having arrived in Shanghai together with her husband Major Victor Karsnitsky in the beginning of 1924, she joined the Arts & Crafts and immediately started receiving commissions. 

The bronze ornaments of her design – the symbolical trophies and the Roll of Honor – graced the base of the War Memorial on the Bund, which opened in February 1924. During the same year she worked alongside W. W. Wagstaff to sculpt the statues of Hermes, Eros and Aphrodite, which were cast in bronze and mounted on the clock tower of the General Post Office, which opened in November 1924. During 1925 and 1926, Karsnitsky and Wagstaff together exhibited their sculptures at the local art shows. By the end of 1926, Karsnitsky left Arts & Crafts. 

In October 1928, a memorial to the ten Russian traders, killed by the bandits near Kiangyin three years earlier, opened at the Pahsienjao Cemetery. The statue, which Karsnitsky designed together with her husband, showed "a stooping figure of a peddler touching the ground with his arm." (NCDH 20 Oct 1928). During the construction of St. Nicholas Church (1932) Karsnitsky assisted the master carver V. Biliani to create plaster ornaments around the arches.

Karsnitsky taught drawing at the French Municipal School, on Avenue Joffre. She went on to create dozens of bronze busts and memorial reliefs in Shanghai, including a bust of the world chess champion Alexander Alekhine. She was, evidently, a proficient chess player: in February 1933, she won a game against Alekhine, who was playing blindfold against 11 boards. 

In the mid-1930s the couple relocated to Hong Kong.