Trubetskoi, Pavel Petrovich

Trubetskoi, Pavel (Paolo) Petrovich 

Born Feb. 15, 1866, in Intra, Italy; died there Feb. 12, 1938. Russian impressionist sculptor.

Trubetskoi worked in Milan in private studios (1884) and in his own workshop (1885–97). Between 1897 and 1906 he lived in St. Petersburg and in Moscow, where he taught in the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture. Beginning in 1906 he lived abroad—in France, the United States, and Italy.

Trubetskoi’s works, which include mostly genre and portrait figurines and busts, are noted for spontaneity of portrayal. The sculptor accurately caught the movement, gesture, and character of his subject in quickly executed studies. His modeling consisted of expressive indefinite surfaces, often impressed with the sculptor’s fingerprints; there is a richness of texture and a play of light and shade. Examples of Trubetskoi’s work include Moscow Coachman (1898, bronze, Russian Museum, Leningrad) and Portrait of Leo Tolstoy (1899, bronze, Russian Museum). Trubetskoi also sculpted the monument to Alexander III in St. Petersburg (1900–06, bronze). The ponderous, gross power inherent in the monument imparts an objectively accusatory spirit.

REFERENCE

Schmidt, I. Trubetskoi. Moscow, 1964.

M. L. NEMAN