TRUBETZKOY, Prince Paolo
Italian/Russian sculptor, his real name was Pavel Petrovich Trubetzkoy. He was an aristocrat and self-taught sculptor. He was made a teacher at the Moscow State School of Art in 1897 by the tsar. He achieved fame in Paris where he lived from 1905, with portraits (inspired by Giuseppe Grandi, Rodin, and Rosso) of his contemporaries, including literati such as George Bernard Shaw and Gabriele d’Annunzio. He depicted the society of the Belle Époque. Few of his bronzes are still available in the market. Quite famous is the 35 cm high portrait of Constance Stewart-Richardson called “The Dancer”. As a convinced vegetarian he also created several animal sculptures.
He worked in the USA between 1911 and 1921, then returned to divide his time between Paris and Lago Maggiore. His work revealed a sketchlike, impressionist construction with an excitingly modeled surface structure.
The largest and best known of his works is the monumental equestrian statue of the Russian Tsar Alexander III in St. Petersburg. The monument was opened in 1909 on the Nevsky Prospekt near the Moskovsky Vokzal terminal. After the Russian revolution of 1917, the Soviet government removed the monument from the main street to the backyard of the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the monument to Tsar Alexander III was placed in front of the Marble Palace near the embankment of the Neva river.
