Teadus ja Kunst
Наука и Искусство
Science and Arts

Julius Gens

17/11/1887-03/02/1957

Julius (Idel) Gens (Genss) – (17.11.1887, Jurjev, now Tartu, Estonia – 3.02.1957, Tallinn, Estonia) – art critic, bibliophil, bibliographer.

Graduated from the department of Law of the Jurjev university (1911), studied at the department of architecture of the Munich Art Academy (1911-1912), worked as an advocate in Moscow (1913-1916), worked as the head of one of the publishing houses in Petrograd (1917). Sinse 1918 lived in Estonia. Was the head of the estonian branch of the swedish firm «The Timber Company» (until 1940), then the member of the staff of the Art museum in Tallinn.

By 1941 he has collected one of the significant libraries of art and illustrated books (more than 9000 volumes). His collection included more than 5000 prints and several thousand ex-librises. At war time his library and collection of prints were in Alfred Rosenberg occupation forces headquaters, and by the end of war were taken out to Germany. As a war trophy the library was given back to USSR and passed to Science Academy library in Belorussia.

At evacuation time in Tashkent (1941-1944) Gens prepared «Мaterials for the history of fine arts and folk arts of the Soviet Uzbekistan».
After the war he was the director of exibitions of the Estonian Art fund.

To Gens belong:

• «Заметки библиофила» (Bibliophil notes) (Таrtu, 1932; reprinted in «Книга. Исследования и материалы», 1990, вып.60))
• «Каталог библиотеки и собрания Юлия Генса» (Julius Gens library and collection catalog) (Tallinn, 1939), which included the literature about bibliography and bibliology, as well as "judaika" section (more than 1300 titles in various languages).
• publication of the bibliography У.Г.Иваск «Еврейская периодическая печать в России» (Таллинн, 1935)
• several catalogs of the ex-libris and book prints

His last years he worked on continuation of the "Bibliophil notes", part of which was piblished in «Альманах библиофила» (М.,1976, вып. 3) and in «Советская библиография (1990, № 4-5). In 1948 he published a guide book to the old relics and monuments «Старый Таллинн» (The old Tallinn) (in estonian and russian). In 1953 Gens finished the work on the bibliography of the estonian art (14 print volumes which remained in typescript).

Literature:

• Осоргин М. "Библиофильская новинка", "Последние новости" (Париж), 1939, 1 июня;
• F. Puksoo "Raamat ja tema sõbrad". Tallinn, 1973
• "Eesti kunsti sidemed XX saj. algupoolelt". Tallinn, 1978
• Ласунский О.Г. (предисловие к публикации «Заметок библиофила»), Книга: Исследования и материалы. 1990. Сб.60; его же «Второе «я» Ю.Генса»
• Евреи в культуре Русского Зарубежья, Сост. М.Пархомовский. Иерусалим, 1993. Вып. 2
• Инна Генс-Катанян. Дома и миражи. Нижний Новгород, изд-во ДЕКОМ, 2005