Early Life and Artistic Beginnings Antoine Pevsner, born Natan Borisovich Pevzner in 1886 in Oryol, Russian Empire—present-day Belarus—emerged from a Jewish family steeped in intellectual curiosity. His early artistic inclinations weren’t immediately focused on sculpture; he initially pursued architecture and painting, studying at the Imperial Central School of Technical Drawing in St. Petersburg before venturing to Paris in 1908. This period was formative, exposing him to the burgeoning avant-garde movements that would profoundly shape his aesthetic trajectory. Though he engaged with Cubism…