Leo Ziemssen Moll was born in the Rhineland in Germany. Neither birthplace nor date have been reported. She studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and exhibited widely throughout Europe before coming to the U.S.

Her sculptural work was described as “showing classical dignity combined with the joyousness of the Rhine country.”

Among her sculptural works are the “Dancing Chords,” figures which Moll created for the International Dancing Congress in Essen in 1928. They were inspired by the dancing movements of contemporary German dancers.

In the U.S. she gained some acclaim for sculptural portraits.

Most of the newspaper articles mentioning her name relate to 1936 and an open controversy between her and Martha Graham, a famous dancer. Moll had apparently lobbied for Graham’s company to visit a dance festival in Germany, stating that “dance has nothing to do with politics or propaganda.”

Martha Graham objected loudly and publicly, stating:

I would find it impossible to dance in Germany at the present time. So many artists whom I respect and admire have been persecuted, have been deprived of the right to work for ridiculous and unsatisfactory reasons, that I should consider it impossible to identify myself, by accepting the invitation, with the regime that has made such things possible.”

I cannot tell without more information whether Moll was sympathetic to the Nazi regime or, as a German living abroad, blind towards the depredations of the regime. Many of the Nazi’s worst excesses were still to come and a lot of American Germans did not want to believe how bad the situation in their former home country had become.

Not much is known about Leo Ziemssen Moll’s life.