Nikolay Akimovich Laveretsky (Russian: Николай Акимович Лаверецкий; 13 February 1837,
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...
- 23 October 1907,
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 ...
) was a Russian sculptor and art professor.Russian Museum ЛАВЕРЕЦКИ Николай Акимович (retrieved 20 September 2021).
Biography
His father, was also a sculptor; and his younger brother, , would become one as well.Russian Academy of Art ЛАВЕРЕЦКИЙ Николай Акимович (1837-1907) /ref> He initially attended the drawing school at the
Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts
The Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts (Russian: Императорское общество поощрения художеств (ОПХ)) was an organization devoted to promoting the arts that existed in Saint Petersburg from 182 ...
then, from 1851, studied at 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 ...
with
Nikolai Pimenov
Nikolai Stepanovich Pimenov (Russian: Николай Степанович Пименов; 24 November 1812, Saint Petersburg — 5 December 1864, Saint Petersburg) was a Russian sculptor. His father was the sculptor, Stepan Pimenov.
Biograp ...
bas-relief
Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...
of
Achilles
In Greek mythology, Achilles ( ) or Achilleus ( grc-gre, Ἀχιλλεύς) was a hero of the Trojan War, the greatest of all the Greek warriors, and the central character of Homer's '' Iliad''. He was the son of the Nereid Thetis and Pele ...
with the corpse of
Hector
In Greek mythology, Hector (; grc, Ἕκτωρ, Hektōr, label=none, ) is a character in Homer's Iliad. He was a Trojan prince and the greatest warrior for Troy during the Trojan War. Hector led the Trojans and their allies in the defense o ...
(1857), a small gold medal for a bas-relief of
Cincinnatus
Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus ( – ) was a Roman patrician, statesman, and military leader of the early Roman Republic who became a legendary figure of Roman virtue—particularly civic virtue—by the time of the late Republic.
Cincinnatus ...
being named Dictator (1859) and, finally, the large gold medal for a bas-relief of
Regulus
Regulus is the brightest object in the constellation Leo and one of the brightest stars in the night sky. It has the Bayer designation designated α Leonis, which is Latinized to Alpha Leonis, and abbreviated Alpha Leo or α Leo. Reg ...
returning to
Carthage
Carthage was the capital city of Ancient Carthage, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the cla ...
(1860). This was accompanied by a stipend to study abroad, and the title of "Artist First-Class".Andrey Somov, "Лаверецкий (Николай Акимович)", in the '' Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary'', Vol.XVII, 1896 pp.208-209 Online @ Russian Wikisource
He remained in Italy for many years. His sculpture of a boy and girl feeding a bird, sent from Rome in 1868, earned him the title of "academician". An assortment of small sculptures sent in 1870 resulted in his being named a professor. He returned to Russia that same year, and began teaching at the academy. He taught there until 1894, when a new charter was enacted and he was dismissed, "at his own request".
Together with , Matvey Chizhov, and , he took part in a major sculptural project known as the "Памятник Тысячелетию России" (
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 ...
), erected in Novgorod according to designs created by
Mikhail Mikeshin
Mikhail Osipovich Mikeshin (russian: Михаил Осипович Микешин; 1835–1896) was a Russian artist who regularly worked for the Romanov family and designed a number of outdoor statues in the major cities of the Russian Empire.
...
. The monument contains a total of 128 figures. Laveretsky and his team worked on the eastern
frieze
In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor ...
, with 26 figures, representing "Государственные люди" (statesmen).
His best known work is the
cast-iron
Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuriti ...
statue, "", which was created in 1896 at the Kasli foundry.Скульптура Н.А.Лаверецкого "Россия" @ ''Вашъ Финансовый Попечитель'' (Your Financial Trustee) In 1900, it was displayed in the Kasli pavilion at the Exposition Universelle in Paris. The pavilion was such a success that French President
Émile Loubet
Émile François Loubet (; 30 December 183820 December 1929) was the 45th Prime Minister of France from February to December 1892 and later President of France from 1899 to 1906.
Trained in law, he became mayor of Montélimar, where he was not ...
offered to buy it for the equivalent of two million rubles. The offer was accepted, but Laveretsky's statue was excluded, as it was a symbol of "
Mother Russia
The personification of Russia is traditionally feminine and most commonly maternal since medieval times.
Most common terms for national personification of Russia are:
*Mother Russia (russian: Матушка Россия, tr. ''Matushka Rossiya'' ...
". The sale was never finalized, however, and the pavilion was dismantled. In 1957, the statue and parts of the pavilion were recreated from old drawings and models, and placed in an art gallery that has since become part of the Yekaterinburg Museum of Fine Arts.
He died in 1907, and is interred at the