Paul Troubetzkoy (1886 - Russian 1938) Borzoi, 1909 Bronze Artist

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Paul Troubetzkoy (1886 - Russian 1938)
Borzoi, 1909
Bronze
Artist Biography :
Troubetzkoy’s aristocratic lineage and international lifestyle ideally suited him to the role of society portraitist. His
style is so relaxed and elegant that it appears facile, yet he consistently devised poses and settings that are
convincingly modern and formally inventive. Through his multiple portrait statuettes, international exhibitions and
globe-trotting travel, Troubetzkoy brought his art to the attention of a far wider audience than most of his Italian
compatriots.
He was born at Intra on Lake Maggiore, the son of a Russian prince and an American singer. As an artist, he was
essentially an autodidact, but he was much influenced by the Milanese Scapigliatura, particularly his friend the
painter Daniele Ranzoni and the sculptors Giuseppe Grandi and Ernesto Bazzaro. Troubetzkoy’s travels exposed
him to the ideas of Auguste Rodin and the Impressionists. During a lengthy stay in Russia, he was appointed
chairman of sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Moscow (1898-1905), and he executed major sculptures of his
friend Tolstoy and Tsar Alexander III. He won the grand prize for sculpture in the Russian section of the 1900
Exposition in Paris, and eventually settled there in 1906. Such French personalities as Rodin, Anatole France,
Count Robert de Montesquieu and George Clemenceau, and notable foreigners, including Giacomo Puccini and
George Bernard Shaw, sat for Troubetzkoy. In many ways, he was the sculptural equivalent of the portrait painters
Giovanni Boldini and John Singer Sargent. The flamboyant sculptor, often seen strolling the boulevards with his
hounds, was also an astute Animalier (animal portraitist). His American experience, including tours in 1912 and
1916-18 that took his work to The Art Institute of Chicago, the Detroit Institute of Arts and elsewhere, is reflected in
a number of energetic impressions of the American West. In 1932, Troubetzkoy returned to his birthplace, where he
remained until his death six years later.
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