Monument to Peter the Great as a tribute to "gigantic works of a fatigueless reformer"

A monument to Peter I was unveiled in St. Petersburg on Senate Square 237 years ago, on August 18, 1782. A long and quite dramatic story of the monument is presented on the Presidential Library’s portal including rare sources. They are “Collection of the Imperial Russian Historical Society. Vol. 17. [Correspondence between Empress Catherine II and Falconet”, “Copy from the definition of the Governing Senate on the construction of the monument”, “Note by Bilistein on the selection and arrangement of squares for the designed monuments to Peter I and Catherine II”, correspondence on Falconet moving to Russia, as well as black and white photographs of the 50s of the XX century and highly artistic photographs of the best contemporary Petersburg and Moscow masters of light painting. Interesting details of the creation of the monument are also presented on the portal of the Presidential Library in a multimedia format - the audio file of Sergei Tsvetkov “Empress Catherine II. Bronze Horseman".  

“The intention to erect a monument to Peter the Great was expressed by Empress Elizabeth Petrovna at the very beginning of her reign”, - the first of the above-mentioned publications says. “The Empress in the construction of the monument to him could undoubtedly see not only an expression of her daughter's veneration, but also a people’s tribute to gigantic works of a fatigueless reformer”. 

But the plan was implemented only during the reign of Catherine the Great. The place for the monument was chosen between the Admiralty and the Senate building - the main legislative body of Tsarist Russia. All that remained was "to find an artist capable of performing the great task with dignity".  

It was decided to call for Etienne Maurice Falconet from France.

Falconet had already turned fifty, but he had no major works in his life, except for the success of two works exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1757 - marble statues “Bather” and “Menacing Cupid”. But these were chamber works, and here a completely different scale was assumed – a sovereign one. According to the contract, the sculptor, who arrived in St. Petersburg in 1766 with his student Marie-Anne Collot, was supposed to complete the work on the monument in eight years.

Falconet, however, did not anticipate that difficulties would begin even at the stage of the project’s consideration.  

The sculptor’s vision of the monument diverged from the vision of the empress and her entourage. Catherine II demanded to depict Peter I in the image of the Roman emperor, riding a horse with a scepter in his hand; Diderot saw the monument in the form of a fountain surrounded by allegorical figures. They also advised the master to depict Peter in full growth with a commander's baton in his hand, to surround him with allegorical figures. The empress insisted on placing the monument in the center of Senate Square. Falconet acted in his own way, setting the Bronze Horseman closer to the Neva.

The Frenchman was insistent in substantiating the compositional decision he chose: “I will confine myself to the statue of this hero, whom I do not interpret either as a great commander or as a winner, although he, of course, was both. The personality of the creator, the legislator, the benefactor of his country is much higher, and this is what it needs to be shown to people. My tsar does not hold any rod; he extends his benefic right hand over the country he is circling. He rises to the top of the rock, serving as his pedestal - this is the emblem of the difficulties he has conquered”.

Disputes arose around the clothes of Peter I. The sculptor wrote Diderot: “You know that I will not dress him in Roman, just as I would not have dressed Julius Caesar or Scipio in Russian”.

Falconet had been working on a life-size model of the monument for three years, embodying his personal, clearly formed image of the future monument. In 1769, passers-by could watch in one corner of St. Petersburg how a guard officer took off on a horse on a wooden platform and put it on its hind legs. This went on for several hours a day. Falconet sat by the window in front of the platform and carefully sketched what he saw. The horses for work on the monument were taken from the imperial stables: the sculptor chose the Russian Oryol breed for the monument.

Falconet apprentice Marie-Anne Collot fashioned the head of the Bronze Horseman. The sculptor himself undertook this work three times, but each time Catherine II advised to redo the model. Marie herself proposed her sketch, which was accepted by the empress.

For a long time no one wanted to take on the casting of a statue. According to the sculptor’s calculations, in order for the statue to be stable, in order to maintain its balance, the front walls of the monument had to be made very thin - no more than a centimeter. Even mature foundry workers refused such work, they called Falconet crazy and said that in the world there was no such way of casting. There was, however, work’s performer - cannon craftsman Emelian Khaylov. Together with him, Falconet picked up the alloy, made samples. For three years, the sculptor perfectly mastered the casting.

Meanwhile, the equally difficult problem of finding a pedestal for sculpture was being solved. A giant granite boulder weighing 1.6 tons - “Thunder-stone” - was brought to St. Petersburg (it took about nine months to transport it by land to the shore of the Gulf of Finland and on a barge to the installation site) and processed by Russian craftsmen to become the base of the monument to Peter the Great .

By the time the monument was erected, the relationship of the sculptor and the imperial court had completely deteriorated, as Catherine wanted the master to be more compliant, and he considered her not aesthetically advanced.

The monument to Peter the Great was inaugurated on August 18, 1782. However, the author of the equestrian statue did not attend the event. He was not invited to the opening ceremony. Falconet had already left for Paris by this time...