Prince Paul Troubetskoy II by Anders Zorn 1909

Prince Paolo Petrovich Troubetzkoy (also known as Pavel or Paul; russian: Павел Петрович Трубецкой, translit=Pavel Petrovich Trubetskoy; Intra,

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, 15 February 1866 —

Pallanza Pallanza is a district of the Italian ''comune'' (municipality) of Verbania. It is located in the Province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, on the bank of Lake Maggiore. History Pallanza was autonomous until 1939 when it was merged with Intra to form ...

, 12 February 1938) was an artist and a sculptor who was described by

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...

as "the most astonishing sculptor of modern times".G.B. Shaw, Preface to the catalogue of an exhibition of sculpture by Troubetzkoy at the P. & D. Colnaghi Galleries, London, 1931, i
''The Complete Prefaces: 1930-1950''
(Allen Lane, 1997), pp. 97-98. By birth, he was a member of the ancient House of

Trubetskoy The House of Trubetskoy (English), Трубецкие (Russian), Трубяцкі ( Belarusian), ''Trubecki'' (Polish), ''Trubetsky'' ( Ruthenian), Трубецький (Ukrainian), ''Troubetzkoy'' (French), ''Trubic'' (Croatian), ''Trubetski'' ...

Life

He was the son of Russian diplomat, Prince Peter Petrovich Troubetzkoy and his second wife, lyric singer Ada Winans (1831-1917). His paternal grandmother was Princess Emilie zu

Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn was a county of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, comprising the lands of the region of Sayn. It was created as a partition of Sayn-Wittgenstein in 1607, although it was not until the next year that it obtained fully the ...

(1801-1869), which makes him great-grandson of famous Marshal Prince Peter zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg-Ludwigsburg. He worked in Russia, the United States, England and Italy. He was a self-taught artist, although he learned sculpture from Giuseppe Grandi. He is associated with

impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passa ...

, due to his ability to grasp sketchy movements in his

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids suc ...

works. He was heavily influenced by the work of

Auguste Rodin François Auguste René Rodin (12 November 184017 November 1917) was a French sculptor, generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled traditionally and took a craftsman-like approach to his work. Rodin possessed a uniqu ...

and

Medardo Rosso Medardo Rosso (; 21 June 1858 – 31 March 1928) was an Italian sculptor. He is considered, like his contemporary and admirer Auguste Rodin, to be an artist working in a post-Impressionist style. Biography and works Rosso was born in Turin, whe ...

. He depicted the

society A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Soc ...

of the ''

Belle Époque The Belle Époque or La Belle Époque (; French for "Beautiful Epoch") is a period of French and European history, usually considered to begin around 1871–1880 and to end with the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Occurring during the era ...

''. Few of his bronzes are still available in the market. Quite famous is the 35 cm high portrait of

Constance Stewart-Richardson Lady Constance Stewart-Richardson (later Matthew; ; 1883–1932) was a British dancer and author. Biography She was a daughter of Francis Mackenzie Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl of Cromartie (1852–1893) and sister of Sibell Lilian Blunt-M ...

called "The Dancer". His work was also part of the sculpture event in the art competition at the

1912 Summer Olympics The 1912 Summer Olympics ( sv, Olympiska sommarspelen 1912), officially known as the Games of the V Olympiad ( sv, Den V olympiadens spel) and commonly known as Stockholm 1912, were an international multi-sport event held in Stockholm, Sweden, b ...

. The largest and best known of his works is the monumental equestrian statue of the Russian

Tsar Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East and South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word ''caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" in the European medieval sense of the ter ...

Alexander III in St. Petersburg, Russia. The monument was opened in 1909 on the

Nevsky Prospekt Nevsky Prospect ( rus, Не́вский проспе́кт, r=Nevsky Prospekt, p=ˈnʲɛfskʲɪj prɐˈspʲɛkt) is the main street (high street) in the federal city of St. Petersburg in Russia. It takes its name from the Alexander Nevsky L ...

near the Moskovsky Vokzal terminal. After the

Russian revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and adopt a socialist form of government ...

of 1917, the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

government removed the monument from the main street to the rear of the

Russian Museum The State Russian Museum (russian: Государственный Русский музей), formerly the Russian Museum of His Imperial Majesty Alexander III (russian: Русский Музей Императора Александра III), on ...

in St. Petersburg. After the

dissolution of the Soviet Union The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...

, in 1994, the monument to Alexander was placed in front of the Marble Palace near the embankment of the

Neva river The Neva (russian: Нева́, ) is a river in northwestern Russia flowing from Lake Ladoga through the western part of Leningrad Oblast (historical region of Ingria) to the Neva Bay of the Gulf of Finland. Despite its modest length of , it ...

, at the former site of the armoured car that transported Lenin from Finland Station.

Vegetarianism

Troubetzkoy was a

vegetarian Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter. Vegetariani ...

. His vegetarian friend

remarked: “Troubetzkoy is a gigantic and terrifying humanitarian who can do anything with an animal except eat it”. Alexandra Tolstoy, daughter of the great novelist

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...

wrote in her father’s biography: "From time to time he posed – a tiring obligation – for painters and sculptors: for Repin, Pasternak who did a study of the family, Aronson, and Paolo Troubetzkoy. Troubetzkoy, a Russian educated in Italy, did some splendid little statues of Tolstoy – one of him on horseback. Father was very fond of him. A sweet and childlike person in addition to his great gifts, he read practically nothing, spoke little, all his life was wrapped up in sculpture. As a convinced vegetarian he would not eat meat but cried: "Je ne mange pas de cadavre!" if anyone offered him some. In his studio in St. Petersburg there was a whole zoo: a bear, a fox, a horse, and a vegetarian wolf. Troubetzkoy once said “As I cannot kill I cannot authorize others to kill. Do you see? If you are buying from a butcher you are authorizing him to kill — kill helpless, dumb creatures, which neither I nor you could kill ourselves.”

Personal life

Troubetzkoy was married twice. His first marriage was to a Swedish woman, Elin Sundström (1883–1927) and his second marriage was to a British woman named Muriel Marie Boddam. His son Pierre died at the age of 2 1/2 years - he sculpted in the same year the sculpture "Maternity".

Gallery

File:Paolo Monti - Servizio fotografico (Gardone Riviera, 1969) - BEIC 6330843.jpg, Bust of Gabriele D'Annunzio, 1892.

Vittoriale degli italiani The Vittoriale degli italiani (English translation: ''The shrine of victories of the Italians'') is a hillside estate in the town of Gardone Riviera overlooking Lake Garda in province of Brescia, in Lombardy. It is where the Italian poet and nove ...

Gardone Riviera Gardone Riviera ( Gardesano: ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Brescia, in Lombardy. It is situated on the western shore of Lake Garda. Twin towns Gardone Riviera is twinned with: * Arcachon, France, since 1980 * Pescara, Italy, s ...

. Photo by

Paolo Monti Paolo Monti (11 August 1908 – 29 November 1982) was an Italian photographer, known for his architectural photography. In his early period, Monti experimented with abstractionism as well as with effects such as blurring and diffraction. In 19 ...

, 1969. File:Troubetzkoy Levitan.jpg,

Isaac Levitan Isaac Ilyich Levitan (russian: Исаа́к Ильи́ч Левита́н; – ) was a classical Russian landscape painter who advanced the genre of the "mood landscape". Life and work Youth Isaac Levitan was born in a shtetl of Kibarty ...

, 1899 File:Trubetzkoy Gagarins.jpg, Princess M.N. Gagarina with her daughter, Marina, 1898 File:Troubetzkoy Elizaveta Feodorovna.jpg,

Grand Duchess Grand duke (feminine: grand duchess) is a European hereditary title, used either by certain monarchs or by members of certain monarchs' families. In status, a grand duke traditionally ranks in order of precedence below an emperor, as an approxi ...

Elizabeth Feodorovna, 1899 File:Trubetzkoy Children.jpg, Children (N.S and V.S Troubetzkoy), 1900 File:Troubetzkoy Witte.jpg,

Sergei Witte Count Sergei Yulyevich Witte (; ), also known as Sergius Witte, was a Russian statesman who served as the first prime minister of the Russian Empire, replacing the tsar as head of the government. Neither a liberal nor a conservative, he attract ...

with his

setter The setter is a type of gundog used most often for hunting game such as quail, pheasant, and grouse. In the UK, the four setter breeds, together with the pointers, usually form a subgroup within the gundog group as they share a common ...

, 1901 File:Trubetskoy Friends.jpg, Friends, 1901 File:AlexandreIIImonument.jpg, Monument to

Alexander III of Russia Alexander III ( rus, Алекса́ндр III Алекса́ндрович, r=Aleksandr III Aleksandrovich; 10 March 18451 November 1894) was Emperor of Russia, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland from 13 March 1881 until his death in 18 ...

in front of the Marble Palace File:Paolo Troubetzkoy Statute.JPG, Lady Standing, 1927, Bass-Dwyer Collection File:Portrait of Mrs. Troubetzkoy by Paolo Troubetzkoy.jpg, Paolo Troubetzkoy, Portrait of Mrs. Troubetzkoy, photo by

David Finn David Finn (August 30, 1921 – October 18, 2021) was an American public relations executive, photographer, and historian of sculpture. He is known in public relations as a co-founder of the Ruder Finn firm. In addition to his career in public r ...

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of ch ...

Library, Washington, DC File:Portrait of Leo Tolstoy by Paolo Troubetzkoy.jpg, Paolo Troubetzkoy, Portrait of

, 1890, photo by

Library, Washington, DC File:Memorial to Italian Soldiers of WWI by Paolo Troubetzkoy.jpg, Paolo Troubetzkoy, Memorial to Italian Soldiers of WWI, 1923, photo by

Library, Washington, DC

Expositions

* Paris Expo 1900 (gran premio). In: AIC *De Young Museum (bust of Michael de Young) *

Biennale di Venezia The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

1922. (37 works). * Galleria Nazionale (

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

) * WWAA 1938

The Troubetzkoy Archive Project

The Troubetzkoy Archive Project provides a central database for the works of Paul Troubetzkoy. It was created by James Drake on behalf of the Museo del Paesaggio.

References

External links

Paolo Troubetzkoy, images by GooglePaolo Troubetzkoy exhibition catalog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Troubetzkoy, Paolo 1866 births 1938 deaths 19th-century sculptors from the Russian Empire 19th-century male artists from the Russian Empire 20th-century Russian sculptors 20th-century male artists People from Intra Russian male sculptors Paolo Vegetarianism activists Olympic competitors in art competitions