Fedot Shubin

Fedot Ivanovich Shubin (May 28, 1740 – May 24, 1805) is widely regarded as the greatest sculptor of 18th-century Russia.

Biography

A peasant's son, Fedot Shubnoy was born in a Pomor village near Kholmogory and, inspired by the example of his neighbour Mikhail Lomonosov, he walked all the way to St Petersburg at the age of 18. Lomonosov took notice of his talent in walrus ivory carving ( a folkcraft traditionally practised in Kholmogory) and helped him join the newly established Imperial Academy of Arts, where his instructor, Nicolas-François Gillet, was so impressed with his abilities that he had Shubin awarded with a gold medal, which opened to him the prospect of furthering his education abroad.

Through the help of Falconet, in 1767 he joined the Paris atelier of the great Pigalle, before moving to Rome three years later. Upon his return to Russia in 1772, Shubin became the most fashionable and sought-after sculptor in the country. In the 1770s and 1780s, he executed numerous pieces for the Marble Palace and the Alexandro-Nevsky Lavra, designed 58 medallions representing all the Russian sovereigns from Rurik onward, and was admitted into the Academy of Arts as an academician. The intrigues of his rivals undermined his career, however. He remained destitute until 1794, when the academy eventually bestowed a professorship on him.

A plaster copy of an early Shubin bust of Tsar Alexander I is housed at Thomas Jefferson's house Monticello in Albemarle County, Virginia. The original Shubin work was a gift from the American consul general at St. Petersburg, Levett Harris, in 1804. Shubin's original work given by Harris to Jefferson was lost. Shubin's portrait of Tsar Alexander is in the collection of the Voronezh Museum of Plastic Arts in Voronezh, Russia. The plaster copy, executed in 1955, is housed in the parlor at Monticello.

Works

File:Скульптура Екатерины II в "Русском Музее", г.Санкт-Петербург (2).jpg, Marble statue of Catherine II (1789-1790)
File:Grigoriy Orlov by F.Shubin (1773, GRM) by shakko 02.jpg, Count Grigory Orlov (1773)
File:Maria Panina by Shubin (GTG, 1770s) by shakko 02.jpg, Countess Maria Panina (1775)
File:Alexander Bezborodko by F.Shubin by shakko 02.jpg, Count Alexander Bezborodko
File:Marble bust of Catherine the Great, 1771 CE. From Rome, Italy. By Fedot Shubin, commissioned by Ivan Shuvalov for Catherine the Great. The Victoria and Albert Museum, London.jpg, Marble bust of Catherine the Great (1771)From Rome, Italy. By Fedot Shubin, commissioned by Ivan Shuvalov for Catherine the Great. The Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

References

External links

The Grove Dictionary of Art

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shubin
Russian male sculptors
Neoclassical sculptors
Pomors
1740 births
1805 deaths
People from Kholmogorsky District
Burials at Lazarevskoe Cemetery (Saint Petersburg)
18th-century sculptors from the Russian Empire