Lot Essay
Prince Paul Trubetzkoy (1866-1938), the celebrated sculptor of Russian and American parentage and Italian upbringing, moved to Russia in 1898. He set up a studio in Moscow, where he swiftly established himself as the fashionable portraitist and took up the post of professor at the Art Academy in Moscow. Trubetzkoy had arrived in Russia at an opportune time in the world of sculpture, and his innovative verve and elegance revitalised the uniform realism of the existing style. He became much sought after for his bronze portrait statuettes, was particularly favoured by the Imperial family, and depicted among others Leon Tolstoy, the Grande Duchess Elisabeth Feodorovna, the Prime Minister Count Sergei Witte, Princess Gagarine and Prince Leon Galitzin.
His fame extended beyond the realm of fashionable society portraiture when he won the St. Petersburg competition for the Monument to Czar Alexander III in 1900. He resigned from his post as professor and moved to the capital to execute the monument in 1901. On its completion in 1909, the monument was received with great acclaim, and Trubetzkoy was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir. One of its greatest admirers, the painter Ilya Repin had executed a drawing of the model in 1908. In April 1910 another International Competition was announced in St. Petersburg for a monument to commemorate Czar Alexander II. As with the earlier monument, this was intended to be bronze and was to be erected in Michael Square. In May 1910, Trubetzkoy's projected model was sufficiently evolved to be published in a local magazine, and by November 1911 the competition was closed and Trubetzkoy presented his original maquette. However, though his model was extremely popular with many of his artist friends and admirers, the Russian official art world was reluctant to entrust a second national monument to a foreigner. The judges of the competition, not knowing how to refuse Trubetzkoy, cancelled the competition altogether. Some time later, they elected a mediocre Russian sculptor, Bach, to execute the monument, but again the plan was disbanded, and the monument never created.
Czar Alexander II regned from 1855 to 1881, and was known as the reformist Czar. As soon as he acceded to the throne he set about freeing education, reducing police surveillance, creating the first national bank, and is most celebrated for his 1861 emancipation of the serfs and consequent reformation of the feudal agricultural system. His reign introduced a considerable progress in the Russian socio-economic system. He was tragically assasinated by a bomb by the Nihilists in 1881.
Trubetzkoy chose to create an idealistic image of this progressive Czar, whose life and reign were cut short. His original maquette for the monument, re-exhibited in New York in 1911 at the Hispanic Society (op. cit.), reveals an elegant image, more vertical and mouvementé than his earlier Alexander III. The swishing of the horse's tail and the lively turn of the horse's head contrast effectively with the upright regal figure of the Czar, thus creating an image both of realism and ideology. The Czar sits on his mount over a steep precipice symbolic both of his isolated idealism and of the sudden assassination, he holds, nevertheless, his cap in a gesture of accessability to all his people. The monument to Alexander II was a more subtle and cerebral image than his earlier Alexander III, its poetry and delicate modelling successfully translating into the small bronze format as in the present lot. This is a rare and fine cast, with an impeccable provenance, it reveals Trubetzkoy's mastery of technique in the sure swift strokes of the modelling, his imagination and his sensitivity to the subject matter, and stands as an important record of an intended monument.
His fame extended beyond the realm of fashionable society portraiture when he won the St. Petersburg competition for the Monument to Czar Alexander III in 1900. He resigned from his post as professor and moved to the capital to execute the monument in 1901. On its completion in 1909, the monument was received with great acclaim, and Trubetzkoy was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir. One of its greatest admirers, the painter Ilya Repin had executed a drawing of the model in 1908. In April 1910 another International Competition was announced in St. Petersburg for a monument to commemorate Czar Alexander II. As with the earlier monument, this was intended to be bronze and was to be erected in Michael Square. In May 1910, Trubetzkoy's projected model was sufficiently evolved to be published in a local magazine, and by November 1911 the competition was closed and Trubetzkoy presented his original maquette. However, though his model was extremely popular with many of his artist friends and admirers, the Russian official art world was reluctant to entrust a second national monument to a foreigner. The judges of the competition, not knowing how to refuse Trubetzkoy, cancelled the competition altogether. Some time later, they elected a mediocre Russian sculptor, Bach, to execute the monument, but again the plan was disbanded, and the monument never created.
Czar Alexander II regned from 1855 to 1881, and was known as the reformist Czar. As soon as he acceded to the throne he set about freeing education, reducing police surveillance, creating the first national bank, and is most celebrated for his 1861 emancipation of the serfs and consequent reformation of the feudal agricultural system. His reign introduced a considerable progress in the Russian socio-economic system. He was tragically assasinated by a bomb by the Nihilists in 1881.
Trubetzkoy chose to create an idealistic image of this progressive Czar, whose life and reign were cut short. His original maquette for the monument, re-exhibited in New York in 1911 at the Hispanic Society (op. cit.), reveals an elegant image, more vertical and mouvementé than his earlier Alexander III. The swishing of the horse's tail and the lively turn of the horse's head contrast effectively with the upright regal figure of the Czar, thus creating an image both of realism and ideology. The Czar sits on his mount over a steep precipice symbolic both of his isolated idealism and of the sudden assassination, he holds, nevertheless, his cap in a gesture of accessability to all his people. The monument to Alexander II was a more subtle and cerebral image than his earlier Alexander III, its poetry and delicate modelling successfully translating into the small bronze format as in the present lot. This is a rare and fine cast, with an impeccable provenance, it reveals Trubetzkoy's mastery of technique in the sure swift strokes of the modelling, his imagination and his sensitivity to the subject matter, and stands as an important record of an intended monument.