Birth of Baron Peter K. Clodt, Russian sculptor

May 24 (June 5) 1805, in St. Petersburg, in the family of Major-General was born Pyotr Karlovich Klodt (Clodt von Jürgensburg), baron, Russian sculptor and foundry master, the leading master of animalistic monumental sculpture in Russia in the first half of the 19^th century.

According to family tradition, Clodt was preparing to become a soldier and in 1822 entered the Artillery School in St. Petersburg. Upon graduation he was given the rank of ensign. However, fascinated by molding and carving of wood, after a brief service in the training artillery brigade, lieutenant Baron Clodt retired in 1828 with the firm intention to devote himself to sculpture. For two years he had studied without tutor and worked from nature, copying works of ancient and modern sculpture, and in 1830 joined as a volunteer the Academy of Fine Arts, where he became an apprentice of V. P. Ekimov, head of the Foundry House of the Academy.

In 1831, Clodt received a large government contract and together with sculptors S. S. Pimenov and V. I. Demuth-Malinovsky participated in creating the sculptural group of six horses harnessed to the chariot of Fame for the design of the arch of the Narva Triumphal Gate in Petersburg. This was the first major monumental and decorative work of the young master which received a high praise. In 1833 the sculptor received the title of "appointed to academicians" as well as an apartment at the Academy of Arts and a large workshop. Due to the high discipline and the ability to efficiently carry out important government orders, Clodt soon earned sympathy of the Emperor Nicholas I.

Clodt had earned the European fame owing to the "Tamers of horses" ensemble of the four sculptural groups for Anichkov Bridge in St. Petersburg. In 1838 the first group of tamers of horses was sculpted life-sized and prepared for conversion to the bronze. However, in the years of work on the monument, died the sculptor’s permanent employee, a connoisseur of art castings, Ekimov. Clodt had to do the casting himself, and from 1838 he headed the foundry of the Academy of Fine Arts.

In November 1841, at the western abutments of the Anichkov Bridge rose two bronze sculptural groups made by Clodt. On the eastern abutments were placed their plaster casts, painted in bronze. In 1842, under the order of Nicholas I, the sculptural groups were sent as a gift to Prussian kingFriedrich Wilhelm IV. In 1846 the newly cast horses were presented to the King of Sicily, Ferdinand II. Later copies of the "Tamers of horses" were installed in Peterhof, Strelna, in the stable yard of Kuzminki estate. Clodt decided not to make copies anymore and in 1850 on the Anichkov Bridge were installed bronze statues, cast already in accordance with the new models. As a result, a composite of four different sculpture groups had been formed, representing a detailed drama series, developing a consistent theme - the subjugation of the horse by a man. At the heart of the master’s plan was the topic of man’s victory over the elemental power of nature, the image of a rebel force, tamed by the mind.

While working on the sculpture for the Anichkov Bridge, Clodt had been also engaged with interior decoration of St. Isaac's Cathedral. At that time he created two high relief for the niche of the northern portico - "Carrying the Cross" and "The Entombment", as well as sculptural group "Christ in Glory" above the Holy Doors of the chief iconostasis. His high reliefs organically harmonized with the plane of the marble walls of the cathedral and decorated it perfectly. During these years, the sculptor created a bas-relief, "St. George on horseback" (1846-1847) for the George Hall of the Grand Kremlin Palace in Moscow.

In 1845-1850s, according to a graphic sketch of Russian painter and architect, A. P. Bryullov, Clodt made the 70-meter sculptural relief "Horse in the service of man" for the office building of the Marble Palace. The relief depicted hunt and travel scenes, martial melee of horsemen, horse processions. The tympanums of the two side gables of the house contained other decorative relief by Clodt, depicting tritons blowing shells.

In 1849 Clodt won the competition of projects of the monument to the Russian fabulist, Ivan Andreyevich Krylov, to be set up in the Summer Garden, St. Petersburg. In the spring of 1852 the Academy of Arts Council approved a large model of the monument, and the sculptor began its casting. Krylov was depicted sitting with an open book in his hands. The pedestal, made by Russian artist A. A. Agin, highlighted the scenes from Krylov’s fables. The image of the writer himself was executed by the sculptor in full compliance with likeness. At the same period, Clodt was working on the monument to Prince Vladimir of Kiev, the preparatory works for which had continued intermittently for about 20 years. In 1853, a bronze statue 4.5 meters high was set up in Kiev. Prince Vladimir was represented holding a cross as a symbol of christening Russia.

The last major work by Clodt was the equestrian monument to Emperor Nicholas I on St. Isaac's Square, St. Petersburg, made in the 1856-1859 jointly with sculptors R. K. Zaleman, N. A. Ramazanov and architect Auguste de Montferrand. Equestrian statue of Nicholas I has only two points of support, without any artificial props, which is a rare engineering solution in the history of monumental sculpture.

In the 1837-1863 Clodt headed the Foundry House of the Academy of Arts, having developed a number of improvements to the process of artistic casting; he participated in the casting of bronze the monuments to Karamzin in Simbirsk (1845), and to Derzhavin in Kazan (1847) by sculptor S. I. Galberg, the monument to Barclay de Tolly in Dorpat by sculptor V. I. Demuth-Malinovsky (1849), and the monument to ataman M. I. Platov in Novocherkassk by Russian artists Alexander Ivanov and Nikolai Tokarev (1851).

In 1848 the Academy of Arts awarded Clodt with the title of professor, 1st class, and a decade later – with the title of distinguished professor. In addition to his service in the Academy, from 1858 to 1863 the sculptor had served as chief observer for the teaching of descriptive art in military educational institutions.

8 (20) November 1867, Peter K. Clodt died at his estate in Halala (Finland) and was buried at the Smolensk cemetery in St. Petersburg. Later his remains were transferred to the Necropolis of Artists of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.