William Zorach was born in 1887 in Lituania and came to the U.S at four with his family. He studied art at the National Academy of Design of New York between 1907 and 1908 after following night courses at the Cleveland Institute of Art from 1902 until 1905.
Zorach started to study lithography but wanted to become a painter. To this effect, he went to Paris in 1910 and showed a keen interest in Fauvism and Cubism.
He exhibited his works at the Paris Salon dAutomne in 1910 and returned to New York where he took part in the historical exhibition of the Armory Show in 1913.
He then exhibited his works at the Society of Independent Artists from 1914 until 1916 and continued to paint until 1922. In the meantime, he had turned to sculpture in 1917 inspired by antique Egyptian and Greek art works. He produced heads, torsoes, nudes and animals mainly as well as some monumental works. Zorach died in Bath, Maine, in 1966.