Mikhail Osipovich Mikeshin (russian: Михаил Осипович Микешин; 1835–1896) was a Russian artist who regularly worked for the
Romanov family
The House of Romanov (also transcribed Romanoff; rus, Романовы, Románovy, rɐˈmanəvɨ) was the reigning imperial house of Russia from 1613 to 1917. They achieved prominence after the Tsarina, Anastasia Romanova, was married to th ...
and designed a number of outdoor statues in the major cities of the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
.
Biography
Mikeshin was born on 21 February 1835 in a village near
Roslavl
Roslavl (russian: Ро́славль, ) is a town and the administrative center of Roslavlsky District in Smolensk Oblast, Russia. It is a road and rail junction and a market town. Population:
Climate
Roslavl has a warm-summer humid continenta ...
. When he attended the
Imperial Academy of Arts
The Russian Academy of Arts, informally known as the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts, was an art academy in Saint Petersburg, founded in 1757 by the founder of the Imperial Moscow University Ivan Shuvalov under the name ''Academy of the T ...
in 1852–58, his Romantic treatment of patriotic themes won him the admiration of the Russian royalty and he was asked to teach drawing to the Grand Duchesses.
Although his forte was
battle painting, Mikeshin's sketch won the much-publicized contest for the monument to the
Millennium of Russia
The Millennium of Russia (russian: Тысячелетие России, Tysyacheletiye Rossii) is a bronze monument in the Novgorod Kremlin. It was erected in 1862 to celebrate the millennium of Rurik's arrival to Novgorod, an event tradition ...
in 1859. Henceforward, commissions were plentiful. He illustrated the official motto
Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality
Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality (russian: Правосла́вие, самодержа́вие, наро́дность, Pravoslávie, samoderzhávie, naródnost'), also known as Official Nationality,Riasanovsky, p. 132 was the dominant imper ...
in designs for bombastic outdoor statues of
Kuzma Minin
Kuzma (Kozma) Minin (; full name Kuzma Minich Zakhariev-Sukhoruky, born late 1570s - died 1616) was a Russian merchant from Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, who, together with Prince Dmitry Pozharsky, became a national hero for his role in defending th ...
in
Nizhny Novgorod
Nizhny Novgorod ( ; rus, links=no, Нижний Новгород, a=Ru-Nizhny Novgorod.ogg, p=ˈnʲiʐnʲɪj ˈnovɡərət ), colloquially shortened to Nizhny, from the 13th to the 17th century Novgorod of the Lower Land, formerly known as Gork ...
,
Admiral Greig in
Nikolayev, and
Alexander II of Russia in
Rostov-on-Don.
Only a few of Mikeshin's outdoor monuments survived the Soviet years. These include the statues of
Catherine the Great in
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
(1873),
Bohdan Khmelnytsky in
Kiev (1888), and
Yermak
Yermak Timofeyevich ( rus, Ерма́к Тимофе́евич, p=jɪˈrmak tʲɪmɐˈfʲejɪvʲɪtɕ; born between 1532 and 1542 – August 5 or 6, 1585) was a Cossack ataman and is today a hero in Russian folklore and myths. During the reign ...
in
Novocherkassk
Novocherkassk (russian: Новочерка́сск, lit. ''New Cherkassk'') is a city in Rostov Oblast, Russia, located near the confluence of the Tuzlov and Aksay Rivers, the latter a distributary of the Don River. Novocherkassk is best known ...
(1904). He also won competitions to erect monuments abroad, e.g., the statue of
Pedro IV in
Lisbon.
The Khmelnytsky monument was at the center of controversy, as the original version would have depicted the 17th-century
Cossack leader trampling a
Pole
Pole may refer to:
Astronomy
*Celestial pole, the projection of the planet Earth's axis of rotation onto the celestial sphere; also applies to the axis of rotation of other planets
*Pole star, a visible star that is approximately aligned with the ...
, a
Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...
, and a
Catholic priest
The priesthood is the office of the ministers of religion, who have been commissioned ("ordained") with the Holy orders of the Catholic Church. Technically, bishops are a priestly order as well; however, in layman's terms ''priest'' refers only ...
under the hoofs of the horse. This
xenophobic
Xenophobia () is the fear or dislike of anything which is perceived as being foreign or strange. It is an expression of perceived conflict between an in-group and out-group and may manifest in suspicion by the one of the other's activities, a ...
element was removed in the monument as finally erected.
In 1876–1878, Mikeshin was the editor of ''Pchela'', a satirical magazine in which he published his
caricatures and illustrations to the works of
Nikolai Gogol and
Taras Shevchenko
Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko ( uk, Тарас Григорович Шевченко , pronounced without the middle name; – ), also known as Kobzar Taras, or simply Kobzar (a kobzar is a bard in Ukrainian culture), was a Ukrainian poet, wr ...
. He died on 31 January 1896 in Saint Petersburg.
Works
File:Alexander II monument. Rostov-on-Don.jpg, Monument to Alexander II ( Rostov-on-Don)
File:Nowgorod 2005 Millenium Monument.jpg, Monument ''Millennium of Russia
The Millennium of Russia (russian: Тысячелетие России, Tysyacheletiye Rossii) is a bronze monument in the Novgorod Kremlin. It was erected in 1862 to celebrate the millennium of Rurik's arrival to Novgorod, an event tradition ...
'' (Veliky Novgorod
Veliky Novgorod ( rus, links=no, Великий Новгород, t=Great Newtown, p=vʲɪˈlʲikʲɪj ˈnovɡərət), also known as just Novgorod (), is the largest city and administrative centre of Novgorod Oblast, Russia. It is one of the ...
)
File:SPB Monument of Catherine II 1890-1900.jpg, Monument to Catherine II
(Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
)
File:The Bohdan Khmelnytsky Monument in Kiev. 2012 - panoramio (106).jpg, Monument to Bohdan Khmelnytsky (Kyiv
Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe.
Kyi ...
)
References
Literature
* A. Savinov. Mikeshin. Moscow, 1971
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mikeshin
1835 births
1896 deaths
People from Roslavlsky District
People from Roslavlsky Uyezd
19th-century sculptors from the Russian Empire
19th-century male artists from the Russian Empire
Russian male sculptors
Burials at Nikolskoe Cemetery