Boris Israelevich Anisfeld

Boris Israelevich Anisfeld, also transliterated Boris Izrailevich Anisfeld, was born in Beltsy (Bieltsy), in the Bessarabia Governorate of the Russian Empire, now Balti, Moldova. Sources disagree on the exact birth year: Wikipedia, Doyle, and Wikidata give October 14, 1878 (October 2, 1878, Old Style), while the Art Institute of Chicago, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Illinois Art Project give 1879. This profile follows the earlier date as the more commonly cited figure but treats the year as unresolved.

He trained at the Odesa Art School of Drawing from 1895 to 1901 under K. K. Kostandi, then studied at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg from 1901 to 1909 under P. O. Kovalevsky and D. N. Kardovsky, graduating in 1908 according to the Illinois Art Project's timeline (other secondary sources place his Academy years slightly later). In 1904 he married Freida Glaeserman. She died by suicide in 1933, a fact documented in the Illinois Art Project's biographical timeline of the artist.

Anisfeld worked as a stage and costume designer in Russia, associated with Russian Symbolism, the Mir iskusstva circle, and productions connected to Sergei Diaghilev's circle, before emigrating to the United States in 1917 and settling in New York. He became an American citizen in 1926. From 1929 through the 1950s he taught at the Art Institute of Chicago. He died on December 4, 1973, in Waterford, Connecticut. One source places his death nearby in New London, but the majority of institutional sources, including the Illinois Art Project and Find a Grave, specify Waterford.

No verbatim critical assessments from named critics in major outlets could be confirmed for this profile. Anisfeld's recognition instead rests on institutional and juried honors: a Gold Medal at the 1926 Philadelphia Sesquicentennial International Exposition, and the Martin B. Cahn Prize and a Trustees' Honorable Mention at the Art Institute of Chicago's annual exhibitions in 1937 and 1941. His reputation has been shaped largely by museums rather than the market: a 1918 Brooklyn Museum retrospective that traveled to nine American cities, and a 2003 to 2004 exhibition at the Graduate Center, CUNY, devoted to his paintings and stage designs of 1906 to 1926, both point to sustained curatorial interest in his synthesis of Russian Symbolist theater design and later American painting.

Anisfeld's auction market is thin and the record price is unsettled. An aggregator, FindArtInfo, cites an auction record of USD 540,250, but does not identify the specific work, sale house, or date, and no primary lot record confirms it. A separate market compilation reports an even higher, likewise undocumented, figure of GBP 579,200 described as a "world record." The clearest recently documented sales are Winter Rhapsody (1918), which sold at Sotheby's, New York, on February 26, 2026, for a reported hammer price of USD 120,000 (about USD 151,000 with premium), and Roses and Woman, sold at Phillips, New York, on November 21, 2025, for a reported hammer price of USD 100,000 (about USD 126,000 with premium). Most other tracked results, including a GBP 10,000 sale at Sotheby's London in November 2018, fall in the low thousands to tens of thousands of dollars. No gallery or estate is confirmed to currently represent Anisfeld's market. Historically, Grand Central Gallery in New York represented him in 1951, and Shepherd Gallery in New York later worked directly with the artist's estate and family.

There is no published catalogue raisonne for Anisfeld. An online resource at anisfeld.org compiles images and provenance for many paintings and functions as a digital catalogue project, but it should be treated as a research aid rather than a substitute for a formally published catalogue raisonne. Provenance built through Shepherd Gallery and the artist's estate is the strongest documented chain for major works, and no gallery is confirmed to currently represent the estate. Given how few high-value results exist at auction, the unresolved birth year across major institutions, and the fact that even the highest reported auction prices lack confirmed sale details, collectors should verify any specific work's dating and provenance directly against museum and auction-house documentation rather than relying on a single secondary source.