Nikolay Lancere Lancere Nikolai Evgenievich (1879–1942). Graduated from the Academy of Arts (1904). An outstanding figure of Russian culture of the XX century, an artist of universal talent. A major and versatile architect, painter, graphic artist, architectural historian, figure in the field

Jean Francois Millet (1814–1875) Gatherers 1857. Musee d'Orsay, Paris Millet, coming from a family of a rural organist, with early years joined peasant labor which affected the choice of the central theme of his work. The rural theme was quite common

Camille Corot (1796–1875) Woman with a Pearl 1869. Louvre, Paris A young woman from the neighborhood, Bertha Goldschmidt, posed for the painting. She is dressed in an Italian dress and an artist's vest and is depicted in a pose close to Leonard's La Gioconda. Although the model name is known, this

Karl Petrovich Beggrov 1799–1875 Beggrov graduated from the landscape class of the Petersburg Imperial Academy arts. He studied with the famous landscape painter M. N. Vorobyov. Beggrov was engaged in lithography and was a lithographer at the Main Directorate of Railways

Evgeny Petrovich Zhitnev 1809–1860 Zhitnev was a student of A. G. Venetsianov. He was a serf, but received his freedom, he studied as a free-comer at the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Arts. In 1835 he received the title freelance artist, in 1856 became an academician

Alexander Alekseevich Agin 1817–1875 Agin was the illegitimate son of a courtyard peasant woman and a wealthy Pskov landowner, who came from ancient family Elaginykh. The captain of the privileged cavalry regiment, Alexei Petrovich Elagin, was a member of the Patriotic

Yuon Konstantin Fedorovich (1875-1958) Holiday. Assumption Cathedral in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra The picturesque work of Yuon is multifaceted. He wrote thematic paintings, portraits, but the artist's favorite genre was landscape. This genre allowed him to sing of the beauty of the Russian

Eugene Lansere interpreter of Russian classics

20th century book artists

Evgeny Nemirovsky

Very rarely in one family gathers so many talented people, as in the family from which the hero of our today's essay came. The craving for art was transferred to him from Alberto Camillo, or, as he was called in Russia, Albert Katarinovich Kavos. This man, who built the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow and the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, was the grandfather of Alexander Nikolaevich Benois and the great-grandfather of Evgeny Evgenievich Lansere. Thus, the artist, whom we will now tell you about, was the nephew of one of the founders of the World of Art, although the uncle was only five years older than his nephew. Like Benois, Eugene Lansere also started in the "World of Art" and was also fascinated XVIII century. One of the most famous paintings Lansere, exhibited in 1905, is called "Empress Elizaveta Petrovna in Tsarskoe Selo".

But over time, the paths of the World of Arts diverged: most of them ended their lives in exile, and Evgeny Evgenievich Lansere remained in Soviet Russia, became people's artist RSFSR, laureate Stalin Prize. Did he have to prevaricate for this? In general, no, because the artist Lansere was a convinced realist. Both before and after the revolution, he gladly illustrated works of Russian classical literature. True, from time to time he had to perform works that seemed to be not characteristic of him. And if the portrait of the young Sergo Ordzhonikidze, painted in 1922, is imbued with sympathy for the young, romantic revolutionary, then this cannot be said about the painting on the main staircase of the State Museum in Georgia “JV Stalin directs the first political action of the Transcaucasian proletariat” or about too straightforward and ideological sketches of murals for the Kazansky railway station in Moscow.

Eugene Lansere was born on August 23, 1875, that is, this year we will celebrate his 130th birthday, if, of course, our press remembers this date. His father Evgeny Aleksandrovich was a talented sculptor. Mother Ekaterina Nikolaevna, sister of A.N. Benois, who drew well and attended classes at the Academy of Arts, could also become an artist. “She married for love,” A.N. Benois recalled, “for a young, talented and soon to become famous sculptor Yevgeny Alexandrovich Lansere, and this “romance of Katya and Zhenya”, which began in the summer of 1874, continued until Zhenya’s tombstone, which happened in February 1886, Katya, who at the time of her husband’s death was only 36 years old and who was still charming, remained faithful to him until the end of her life. Yevgeny Aleksandrovich was brought to the grave by tuberculosis, but in marriage with him, Ekaterina Nikolaevna gave birth to six children. After the death of her husband, she moved with her children to a spacious parental home, and Evgeny's childhood years passed along with Alexandre Benois. “I was especially pleased with the fact,” he later recalled, “that under the same roof with me now was my beloved nephew Zhenya, or Zhenyaka, Lansere, who very early began to discover an extraordinary artistic talent. Conversations with this charming, gentle and at the same time filled with inner burning lad gradually began to turn for me from fleeting entertainment into some kind of necessity. Younger brother Eugenia Nikolai became an architect, and the smallest of the sisters famous artist, which entered the history of Russian art under the name of Zinaida Evgenievna Serebryakova.

After graduating from the gymnasium, Eugene became a student of the drawing school of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, and in 1896, together with Lev Bakst, he went on a trip to Paris, the artistic Mecca, which is traditional for the World of Art turn of XIX and twentieth centuries. Together with friends Lansere traveled to Italy, Germany, Switzerland and England. K.A.Somov wrote to one of his correspondents in September 1899: “In May, my St. Petersburg friends, Nouvel and Nurok, came to visit us in Paris, bringing a new note to our company, and with them we, i.e. I, Shura B[enua] and J. Lansere, went to London.

The beginning of Yevgeny Evgenievich's work in the field of book art dates back to 1897, when he received his first order to issue a book by Elizaveta Vyacheslavovna Balobanova "Legends of the Ancient Castles of Brittany". The drawings, executed in ink and whitewash, pen and brush, were made from nature in the summer of the same year, when Lansere, together with A.N. Benois, was in this coastal French province. “Both I and our faithful companion Zhenya Lanceray, Alexander Nikolayevich recalled many years later, dreamed of wild and monstrous rocks, of ancient granite churches and chapels, of prehistoric menhirs, in general, of everything that makes fabulous ... " . Of the drawings Lansere made at that time, he said that they were imbued with a truly Breton mood. At home, these drawings were evaluated differently. “Was it worth it for E. Lancer to go to Paris and study and live there for a long time,” wrote Vladimir Vasilyevich Stasov (18241906), “to draw then his illustrations for the Breton Tales and his decorative drawings, where human figures stick out crooked and oblique, without the slightest nature, waves in the form of regular mosaic rhombuses. Some colossal swollen candles in the dungeon, then unprecedented bushes and plants, anything but what really exists in the world. Stasov, of course, conveyed his impressions of Lansere's work in an obviously exaggerated form, not wanting to recognize the possibility of stylization and the artist's right to his own vision.

Balobanova's book was published in 1899, and at the same time Lansere took part in the design of the anniversary edition of Pushkin, in which A.N. Benois and K.A.

E.E. Lansere. Shmutstitul for the magazine "World of Art". 1904

Then there was cooperation in the journal "World of Art", to which Soviet art criticism was, to put it mildly, wary. However, Soviet art critics in every possible way emphasized the "special place" that Lansere occupied in this "aesthetic artistic association". And how could it be otherwise? After all, according to M.V. Babenchikov, in the words of M.V. Babenchikov, written in 1949, at the very height of the struggle against “rootless cosmopolitanism”, “they proclaimed the “above class” nature of art, supposedly standing “above everything earthly”, and thereby immediately revealed their class belonging". And further: “the world of art slavishly bowed before all kinds of “foreignness” and, in their hatred of the realistic development of the world, closely adjoined Western modernist trends in literature, theater and music” . In the words of the same author, Lansere was never a typical or consistent World of Art. On the contrary, the artist’s exceptional demands on himself prompted him every year to be more and more critical of the conventional style of the “World of Art” and the idealistic worldview of this dying group, which were spokesmen and preachers devoid of high ideological and public interest, and therefore distant and alien to the people of culture.

Meanwhile, A.N. Benois always emphasized the cohesion and complete unanimity of the people who stood at the origins of the "World of Art". At the end of his life path in a letter to the artist and art critic Igor Emmanuilovich Grabar (18711960) dated November 8, 1946, in which he decided to “express all his grief over the death of our dear Zhenya Lansere”, Benoit recalled days long past: “And what was it like” flock!” How many of us were! And how everyone is united, and how everyone is needed by everyone, and everyone is devoted to one cause to protect and disseminate genuine art, or what we with full conviction considered as such. And bitterly noted: "Well, now for" genuine art”is considered something completely different, and there is nothing we can do about it.” Eugene Lansere he is up to last days considered to be an ally.

E.E. Lansere collaborated with the World of Art magazine from the very first issue, in which his excellent lithograph "Kazan Cathedral" and other works dedicated to St. Petersburg were placed. Publishing easel graphics, the artist simultaneously decorated the magazine with surprisingly decorative ornamental decoration. "His intros and endings," wrote the well-known art and bibliologist Aleksey Alekseevich Sidorov (18911978), "always very cleverly either begin or end the pages of a printed text." Ornamentation is a difficult art, always balancing between empty embellishment and true craftsmanship. Lansere's vignettes in Nos. 15 and 16 of The World of Art, A.A. Sidorov called "ingenuous", thus denoting their exciting simplicity and the absence of everything superficial. Made Lansere and covers for the "World of Art". The issues for 1902 published lithographs of the artist, and in issue 9 for 1903 his full-page half-title "The Death of the Gods" was placed, in which one can see the motives of William Blake's work, which is very far from the World of Art. The influence of Beardsley, which is easily seen in the graphics of Lev Bakst and Konstantin Somov, is minimal in the works of Lansere. Another frontispiece by E.E. Lansere opened the section “Medieval poetry in miniatures”.

Among other works by Yevgeny Evgenievich for the World of Art, three drawings for a cycle of poems by Konstantin Dmitrievich Balmont (18671942) published in its most recent issue (twelfth) and the extraordinarily decorative headpieces and endings accompanying this publication should be mentioned. Covers for the magazine "Children's Recreation" and illustrations for A. Osipov's story "Varangian", published in St.

Evgeny Evgenievich was always easy-going: in 1902 he again went on a long trip, but this time not to the West, but to the East. Lansere visited Siberian cities, traveled to Manchuria and Japan. From this trip, Lansere brought a lot of drawings, which, however, did not have a great public resonance. The following year, the artist visited the Pskov region (the ancient monuments of this land admired Lansere, although they did not have any noticeable influence on his work, and then traveled around the Kursk and Kiev provinces, painted landscapes.

During the years of the First Russian Revolution, E.E. Lansere, like his friends from the World of Art, actively participated in the design of opposition magazines. He, a man of pure spirit and painfully sensitive, was outraged by the blood spilled on the streets of St. Petersburg on January 9, 1905. Much later, recalling those days, Lansere wrote: “General indignation with the regime, vague hopes for a more just order of life captured us, a small circle of artists ... Any opposition to the government found sympathy in us.” No. 2 of the Zhupel magazine featured Lansere's drawing “Moscow. Fight", where our ancient capital from the bell tower of the Strastnoy Monastery, from which the punishers shot the rebellious crowds.

After Zhupel was banned and its founders went to prison, Yevgeny Evgenievich was not afraid to declare himself the publisher of the new magazine Infernal Post, in the very first issue of which his sharply satirical drawing directed against the infamous "Black Hundred" was published. “Joy on earth for the sake of fundamental laws”, and in the next the drawings “We are glad to try, Your Excellency” and “Trizna”. The last picture shows policemen celebrating their victory. The graphic solution with a sharp contrast of white and black spots here, as it were, came into conflict with the usual cult of the line for the World of Art.

Ending in the next issue

Yevgeny Lansere was born on August 23 (September 4), 1875 in Pavlovsk into a family that made an invaluable contribution to the development of Russian art.
The father of the future artist was the famous sculptor Yevgeny Aleksandrovich Lansere. His maternal grandfather, N. Benois, was an academician of architecture. The architect was his uncle, L. Benois, another uncle, the youngest of his mother's brothers, was also a famous Russian artist and art critic, who had a great influence on the formation artistic tastes his nephew.
Lansere's childhood passed in Ukraine, in the small estate of his father Neskuchnoye, where his younger sister, later also a famous artist, Zinaida Serebryakova, was born.
After the death of E.A. Lansere's mother moved with her children to St. Petersburg, to her father's house - the Benois House at Nikola Morsky, well-known in artistic circles.
Lansere's artistic abilities showed up early, so there was no doubt about choosing a profession.
In 1892, leaving the gymnasium, at the age of seventeen he entered the school of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, where he spent about four years (1892-1895); in the same years he became permanent member mug, from which subsequently arose.
Under the influence of A. Benois and his friends, Eugene Lansere refused to enter the Academy of Arts and went to study in Paris. Classes in France continued until 1898.
The early period of Lansere's work, due to family and friendly ties, is closely connected with the "World of Art". But Lansere, experiencing a certain influence of A. Benois and, nevertheless, remained unaffected by the nostalgic retrospectivism characteristic of the World of Art.
First of all, Lansere became famous as book chart. His work in this area began with the design of the book by E. Balabanova "Legends of the ancient castles of Brittany" (St. Petersburg, 1899). The artist takes on his first major commission in 1898, having visited Brittany before that. In 1898, the artist exhibited his illustrations for Breton legends and fairy tales at an exhibition of Russian and Finnish artists organized by S. Diaghilev.
Lansere, being abroad, did not participate in the preparation of the first issues of the magazine, but from the second half of 1899 he was among its permanent employees. It was on the pages of the "World of Art" that the artist's long-term "vignetting activity" began, which later spread to the magazines "Art Treasures of Russia", "Children's Recreation" and many other publications.
Design of dozens of publications - books, almanacs, magazines; bookplates, postage and publishing stamps, art postcards - these are the areas in which the artist took part. Working on book graphics, Lansere believed that it was decoration It is not the illustration that determines the artistic image of the book. Screensavers and endings seemed to him a more responsible and difficult task than illustrating an episode in the text. Stylistic and decorative-graphic unity of the book as a whole artwork became for Lansere practical principle designer's work. Yevgeny Lansere was the first among Russian artists to create a page-by-page layout for a book, creating a harmonious harmony of graphic elements. This innovation subsequently entered the practice of all masters of book graphics.
An important stage on the way to this high achievement of the artist was a long (from 1904 to 1912) work on the design of the book by A. Benois "Tsarskoye Selo in the reign of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna". For "Tsarskoye Selo" (the book was designed by a number of artists), Lansere created several screensavers-illustrations with a developed plot beginning.
"Hadji Murad" by L. Tolstoy with illustrations by Lansere became the artist's best pre-revolutionary publication. The 1916 edition contained extensive cuts - the tsarist censorship did not allow Tolstoy's text containing an exposing characterization of Nicholas I to pass; the portrait of the tsar, interpreted satirically by Lansere, was not printed either. The full edition was published only in 1918.
However, classes were no less important in the artist's work. easel graphics and painting. Lansere works a lot from nature - in the sphere of his interests are portrait sketches, landscape, numerous travel sketches.
In 1902 the artist toured Far East visiting Manchuria and Japan. After the start Russo-Japanese War, in February 1904, Lansere receives an order for art postcards with views of Port Arthur and Manchuria.
Revolutionary events of 1905-1906 form a noticeable milestone not only in the development of Lansere's work, but also in the process of becoming his personality. This period includes a number of outstanding works in the field of satirical magazine graphics, in which the artist acts as an independent and mature master with his own, well-established attitude to art and life.
At that time, the artist participated in the publication of the satirical magazine "Spectator" (1905), collaborated in the "Zhupel", published with the participation of M. Gorky. After its prohibition, Lansere took over the publication of the successor to the Bogey, the Infernal Post magazine, for which he performed his best satirical drawings.
I first came into contact with work at Lancer at the very beginning of the 1900s, paying tribute to that passion for theater painting, which was characteristic of almost all representatives of the older generation of the World of Art.
Set design for the last act of Sylvia (1901) and a panel for Patrick's Sanctuary (1911) staged Ancient theater testify to great art Lansere in the field of architectural landscape.
The artist achieved his first achievements in the field of theatrical painting in 1907 - in the design of N. Evreinov's play "Fair for the Indictment of St. Denis" (otherwise "Street Theater"), undertaken jointly with Benois for the "Old Theater" in St. Petersburg.
Lansere's work in the theater was interrupted after 1911 for a relatively long period. The reason for this was the intensive work in the field book illustration and monumental painting, as well as historical events that changed the fate of Russia and the very scope of the artist's activity.
Engaged in Lansere and applied arts: in 1912, having taken the post of head artistic part lapidary factories, porcelain and glass factories run by the "Cabinet of His Majesty", he not only controls the quality of products, but he himself offers several sketches and projects of artistic products.
Versatile artistic activity Lansere received recognition and in 1912 he was awarded the title of academician, in 1916 he was elected a full member of the Academy of Arts.
Lanceray spends the last pre-revolutionary year in the countryside: he paints landscapes, considers the possibility of illustrating L. Tolstoy's Cossacks. The artist meets the news of the overthrow of the autocracy with enthusiasm. However, it is not possible to come to Petrograd, material and everyday difficulties force the artist and his family to seek refuge with friends in the Caucasus. For three years the artist lived in Dagestan, where he taught drawing at a gymnasium. In 1920 he moved to Tbilisi, where he worked as a draftsman at the Museum of Ethnography, went on ethnographic expeditions with the Caucasian Archaeological Institute. From 1922 to 1934 Lansere was a professor at the Tbilisi Academy of Arts.
With the move to Moscow (1933) begins new stage his activities, partly connected with the theater (“Woe from Wit” at the Maly Theater, 1938), but most of all with monumental painting (plafonds of the Kazansky railway station restaurant, the Moskva hotel, the Bolshoi Theater hall, panels for the Komsomolskaya metro station, etc. .).
The war prevented the implementation of everything planned. The master was able to return to work on the painting of the vestibule of the Kazan Station only in the spring of 1945. But he could not finish it - on October 12, 1946, Yevgeny Lansere died.

Yevgeny Alexandrovich Lansere was born in 1848 and became interested in sculpture at a young age. The development of his interests was facilitated by his acquaintance with N.I. Liberich, who later became a well-known amateur master. After graduating from the classical gymnasium in St. Petersburg and entering the university, Lansere began to present his work at the Imperial Academy of Arts. Although the young man did not special education, the academy appreciated the depth of his work and understanding of how to work with the form, conferring the title of class artist II degree. Three years later, the self-taught master managed to become an artist of the 1st degree.

A major role in the development of the famous sculptor was played by his trips around Russia, travels to England, France, Austria, Belgium and many other countries. Lansere studied the works of famous French and Russian sculptors, visited museums, galleries and observed a lot. Traveling around Kyrgyzstan, Bashkiria, the Caucasus, the sculptor was keenly interested in the life of the local population and especially its lively horses. Lansere's interest in horses was so great that he created many compositions with the presence of this noble animal and became famous as a major animal sculptor (French animal - animal).

Initially, Lansere carried out private orders, so each product existed in one copy, but the master's work was so good that large Russian manufacturers acquired the rights to produce its forms. In total for your creative activity the sculptor created about four hundred works, many of which are kept in the Russian Museum, the State Tretyakov Gallery and some other museums. Lansere products represent big interest and for collectors. After the death of Felix Chopin, in whose factory Lansere worked, the manufacturer's daughter married a Frenchman and took to France a number of models that belonged to the Lansere family.

Died 38-year-old E.A. Lansere in the spring of 1886 on his estate. The reason for his departure from life was by no means old age, but a terrible disease for that time - consumption. Relatives tried all possible means for his treatment, but famous sculptor failed to cope with consumption. However, Lansere continued to create to the last and even rode on his horse Kabarda when he felt at least a little better.

Yevgeny Alexandrovich Lanceray is rightfully considered the founder of Russian cabinet sculpture, thanks to which the Russian sculptural school became known throughout the world.

Realistic Bronze Lansere

Animal sculptures

Young and full of energy, Lansere has done as much in his short life as many do not succeed in 70-80 years. His love for sculpture began with childhood grievances. As a boy, Lansere loved to study the life of animals and made sketches of them for a long time. But when he came to the forge and asked the blacksmith to forge a drawn horse out of metal for him, he invariably refused. Then the father advised his son to sculpt the forms of horses from wax.

Later, the passion for animals resulted in numerous bronze works that glorified the sculptor throughout the world. Although he did not have a special education, he intuitively felt the shape of objects and was able to convey it in his works with incredible accuracy.

Sculpture "Pursuit".
E.A. Lancer. 1871
Casting factory F. Chopin.

So, in the work “Catching a Wild Horse”, the author managed to show all the tension that reigns in this scene. Lansere managed most accurately convey the state of both horses, one of which is submissive under the owner, and the second is desperately fighting, trying to free himself from the noose around his neck. The torque voltage is transmitted using the smallest details: fear in the eyes of the animal, the posture of the rider, the drawing of every muscle on the bodies of animals. Nothing escaped my eyes experienced craftsman. It is this brightness and realism that so interested art connoisseurs in the works of Lansere.

"Catching a wild horse."
According to the model of E.A. Lancer. 1876

Working on the described sculpture, the master did not limit himself to the actual figures, but supplemented the composition with relief drawings, where the catcher is rapidly approaching the herd of horses. This is probably due to the fact that each composition for the sculptor was a whole story, which he sought to convey to the viewer in the most expressive form.

Interestingly, I.K. Aivazovsky and P.K. Klodt, who immediately saw a talented sculptor in the young Lancer, asked his father not to send the child to the Academy of Arts, so that the nugget would not be spoiled by classical stereotypes.

According to contemporaries, Lansere was an excellent rider, who was sometimes even compared with a centaur - to such an extent he was one with his horse while riding. Working on the next composition, the sculptor did not create any "average" horse. He drew in detail not only the animal itself, but also selected the breed corresponding to the rider. So he had a sheikh riding an Arab horse, an Englishwoman on a gunther (a half-blooded English breed), and for a Cossack, a daring steppe horse was always selected.

There is a version that under the name of the famous Russian sculptor Naps, none other than Lansere was hiding. Many sculptors of that time had to resort to the practice of working under pseudonyms in connection with the contracts they concluded with one factory. Such an enslaving contract forbade the craftsmen to work at other factories under their own names. The large Lansere, the father of six children, had constant problems with money, which could become main reason work under the name of Naps at the Werfel factory - a serious competitor to the Chopin factory. In addition, almost nothing is known about Naps himself, and his works were made in the same style and using the same techniques as Lansere's sculptures.

"Royal Falconer".
Naps model.
Werfel factory.
Saint Petersburg.

Ethnographic works

Lansere was very fond of depicting the peoples of Russia and Little Russia. Plunging into the next work, he completely recreated the images of representatives of a particular nationality, not losing sight of a single detail. For example, in the composition “Linear Cossack with a Cossack Woman on a Horse”, the Cossack is dressed in a Circassian coat with gazyrs (branches), in which powder charges are probably hidden. High boots-ichigi, a traditional lamb hat, a gun and a saber - all those things that a true Cossack did not part with. Every detail of the young Cossack woman's clothes, holding a rein in her hand, is fashioned no less carefully.

Lansere created another of his works dedicated to the Cossacks after visiting the Donskoy Cossack army. In those days, the Cossacks belonged to the privileged class, which was considered the support of the autocrats. Meeting with Don Cossacks so impressed the master that he expressed his emotions and observations in the famous work “Farewell of a Cossack to a Cossack”. In this sculptural composition the author manages to show the whole gamut difficult feelings a man, when a strong and ready to fight to the death warrior appears before the viewer as sensitive and tender towards his beloved wife. Farewell in the saddle shows all the passion and tenderness of a man and a woman who want to be together until the last moment.

Sculpture
"Farewell of the Cossack to the Cossack".
E.A. Lancer.
Kasli foundry.
1873

At one time, the well-known Russian manufacturer Felix Chopin, who had an entrepreneurial flair for what would be in demand by society, made a bet on Lancer. Chopin was not afraid to include Lansere's work in his main production, believing that full of life the compositions of the young sculptor will become popular not only in Russia. And he was not mistaken, since it was Lansere who made a significant contribution to the growing popularity of Chopin's products. In the late 1870s, the manufacturer bought a number of models from the sculptor, among which were "Farewell of a Cossack with a Cossack" and "Catching a Wild Horse".

Anticipating that the colonial policy of France, expressed in bronze, would be of interest to consumers, Chopin sent Lansere to Algiers. After the trip, the sculptor created a whole series of the so-called Algerian cycle or Arabic scenes. Natural curiosity allowed the sensitive master to literally absorb the local flavor, get acquainted with the peculiarities, motives Arab culture and express it in various artistic compositions.

Arab on horseback.
E.A. Lancer.
1870s-1880s

In Russia, this topic was not popular, so some of the works in this series are rare. However, some sculptures were presented at exhibitions and subsequently cast in factories. In particular, the work "Arab Sheikh" visited exhibitions in Paris and the most significant art exhibitions St. Petersburg. Initially, it was presented under the name "Bedouin". Later, the Chopin factory bought the patent for the casting of this model and bought the model itself. Also among famous works This cycle includes "African Soldier on a Horse", "Water Carrier Kabil", "Algerian Donkey" and some others.

Sculpture "Arab Sheikh".
E.A. Lancer. 1876

Another favorite direction of Lansere was genre scenes describing the life of peasants. The sculptor liked to represent everyday life ordinary workers, to show their work, the features of their life. These are the compositions “Village Nanny”, “Peasant on Horseback”, “Peasant Boy with Horses” and many others. Often among these works there were Russian horse troikas, which very accurately conveyed the features of the dashing Russian sleigh ride. The sculptor approached each work with all care and observation, not disregarding any element, whether it be clothes, household items or facial expressions. It is this sense of depth, originality and ability to convey life in inanimate material that have become the main reasons that Lansere's works are of great interest to art lovers to this day.

Military-historical theme

In the 19th century, many sculptors liked to depict generals, princes, and kings. It could be whole compositions, figures or busts of emperors. One of the best works Lancer on military theme considered to be a sculpture of Prince Svyatoslav. He portrayed the commander exactly as historians describe him: with a broad chest, with a strong nape, a tuft of hair on his bare head, which was a sign of the family. Grand Duke Kiev is depicted as warlike and collected, ready to fight to the last with his enemies. To match a strong commander, resolutely leading his warriors into battle, a horse is also selected - a powerful animal, ready to fight along with the owner in the heat of battle.

"Prince Svyatoslav on the way to Tsargrad".
Sculptor E.A. Lancer. 1886

The popularity of Lansere's work is largely due to its originality. He did not tolerate patterns and stencils, and preferred the veracity of compositions to imitation of other people's works. in his sculptures military theme many dramatic scenes filled with a whole range of feelings are captured.

Sculpture "Circassian in ambush".
E.A. Lancer. 1871

The works “Killed Arab”, “Loss of a comrade-horse”, “Zaporozhets after the battle” and other sculptures of this direction in their entirety convey the mysteries of life, its especially difficult sides for a person. The sculptor was not afraid to be honest, he was not afraid to show life without embellishment. In The Loss of a Horse Companion, he shows the depth of the rider's love for his dashing horse, which long years was his faithful comrade in a bloody battle, in heat and cold or in times of famine.

Sculpture "The Loss of a Companion-Horse".
E.A. Lancer.

Lansere liked to depict not only historical military subjects, but also fabulous ones. One of his most popular works is the composition "Ruslan and the Magic Head", made in 1884. This is a very effective work based on the work of A.S. Pushkin "Ruslan and Lyudmila", where the warrior appears on horseback in front of a huge head guarding the sword. But it's not easy bronze sculpture, but an inkwell, which can be used for its intended purpose if you throw back the helmet of the magic head. Given that the length of the entire sculpture is 40 cm, such an inkwell will be hard to miss on the table, and its skillful execution may well inspire the scribe with ideas for his own original work.

Inkwell
"Ruslan and the magic head".
E.A. Lancer. 1884

Hallmark Lansere

On the works created by E.A. Lansere, usually signed "E. Lancer." For the convenience of writing letters and focusing attention on the inscription, a smooth platform, often rectangular in shape, was made for it. Sometimes the surname was also written in an arc, if it was located on the edge of a curved platform.

On some products, in addition to the surname, the year of publication was noted. This was usually the year the mold was made, on which the bronze work was then cast.

Variations of the above stamps are the stamps with the inscriptions: “sculpted by E. Lansere” and, for example, “LEPIL E. Lanceray 1870”.

Unlike eminent Russian manufacturers, Lansere did not have his own workshop. For his long creative activity, he managed to work in many factories, so the brands on his works often contain the names of manufacturers. Yes, he long time collaborated with Felix Chopin, contributing to the fame of his factory.

Among other factories with which Lansere collaborated, one can note the manufactory of N. Shtange, V. Grachev, I. Sazikov, A. Moran, as well as the Kasli iron foundry.

Foreign factories that cast bronze according to Lansere's models indicated his name in a foreign manner.