Russia
Russia

Konenkov, Sergei Timofeyevich

1874 - 1971

Russia

Bronze - golden honey patina

c 34cm(high)

 

PROVENANCE:

Private collection Moscow


LITERATURE:

Certificate Madame Bobrova, Director of Konenkov Museum, Moscow, dated 19/1/2012.


Screen shot 2012-07-30 at 3.59.03 PM

Sergei Konenkov by Pavel Korin, 1947, Tretyakov Gallery.

Sergei Konenkov sculpted this beautiful nude, Russia, whilst in lonely exile in the USA before his return in 1945.  Despite the best efforts of his wife, and some early successes Konenkov never learnt good English and passionately missed Russia.  Whilst earning a meagre living from portraiture, in his spare time he continued to make images such as Russia which speak of a nostalgia for his native land.  Russia shows an idealised depiction of a type of Russian woman that Konenkov had first started sculpting in the mid 1920's whilst still in Russia. Whilst sturdy and powerful the artist still manages to imbue this nude with a certain primitive eroticism.

IMG_6418  

Sergei Konenkov in his last years

Konenkov was born in into a peasant family in the remote backwoods village of Karakovichi in Smolensk province.  Years later the artist recalled that he grew up among strong working men and women such as farmers, lumberjacks, raftsmen, masons and farm girls and that he had never seen himself as anything but a man who worked with his hands.  There is sense of solidity and continuity in this fine work Russia and a touch of the rural mysticism that runs through Konenkov's work.  

The woman stands contraposto with her weight on her left leg and her right leg bent. She lifts her arms to clasp her head creating a sinuous rising form. There exists a wood sculpture of the subject in the Tretyakov and a porcelain treatment in the Konenkov museum in Moscow.  There reputedly was another wood carving version in The Konenkov Museum, Moscow, which is now whereabouts unknown.

Konenkov Russia in Tretyakov

The wood version in the Treyakov(Cat No 806, Vol II).

Konenkov Russia porcelain in museum

Porcelain Russia in Konenkov Museum

Konenkov Russia Porcelain front

Porcelain front view

Konenkov Russia porcelain rear

Porcelain rear view

Our bronze Russia is a beautiful and powerful scupture by one of Russia's leading 20th century sculptors.  The wood version in the Tretyakov is dated in the Tretyakov catalogue as 1941 - 1942.  The date of our bronze casting is not known.

Sergey Timofeyevich Konenkov (alt. spelling Sergei Konyonkov) (RussianСергей Тимофеевич Конёнков; July 10, 1874 – December 9, 1971) was often called "the Russian Rodin".

Konenkov was born in a peasant family, in a village of Karakovichi in Smolensk province. Sergey studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, graduating in 1897, and at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. His diploma work at the Academy - a huge clay statue of Samson tearing the chains - broke most existing laws of academic art and put him at odds with his teachers, who apparently destroyed the work with hammers.

He travelled to ItalyFranceEgyptGreece, and Germany.

During the Russian revolution of 1905 Konenkov was with the workers on the barricades, soon after creating portraits of the heroes of the rebellion in Moscow. Konenkov later supported the Russian Revolution of 1917.

In 1922 Konenkov married Margarita Ivanovna Vorontsova, and in 1923 they travelled to the USA to take part in an exhibition of Russian and Soviet art. The trip was supposed to last for a few months, but Konenkov stayed in the States for 22 years, living and working in New York.

In 1928–1929 the sculptor visits Italy to meet and work on a portrait of the Soviet writer Maksim Gorky. He has a personal exhibition in Rome.

During the American period, Konenkov creates a large body of work focusing on Bible themes, the Apocalypsis. He produces works depicting Jesus Christ, the Christian prophets and apostles.

In 1935 he was commissioned by the Princeton University to do a sculpture of Albert Einstein. It is said that Einstein was interested in the work of the Russian sculptor, but was more focused on his wife, Margarita Konenkova. Einstein and Margarita, who also was acquainted with the Robert Oppenheimer, allegedly had a love affair, judging by the "nine of the great scientist's apparently genuine love letters, written in 1945 and 1946." There have been allegations that Margarita was working in those years for the Soviet Government, but no concrete evidence has been provided to support the theory.

Under direct orders from Joseph Stalin in 1945, a ship was sent to New York to bring Konenkov back to the USSR. The sculptor was given a large studio on Gorky street in the centre of Moscow. He "had found favor enough with the regime to be asked to design a plaque commemorating the first anniversary of the October Revolution on the Senate Tower of the Kremlin."

Konenkov created sculptures of Aleksandr PushkinAnton ChekhovLeo TolstoyFyodor DostoyevskyIvan TurgenevVladimir MayakovskyKonstantin TsiolkovskyVasily SurikovJohann Bach,Paganini, to name a few. He also made wood carved crosses and other pieces for the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent in Moscow.

Konenkov received numerous Soviet awards, including the golden star of the Hero of Socialist Labour, the order of Lenin and the title Peoples artist of the USSR.

He is buried in Moscow’s Novodevichy Convent.

Selected works

  1. The Uncommon Vision of Sergei Konenkov, 1874-1971: A Russian Sculptor and His Times. By Sergeĭ Timofeevich Konenkov, Marie Turbow Lampard, John E. Bowlt, Wendy R. Salmond. p. 3. Google books
  2. The Uncommon Vision of Sergei Konenkov. p. 5.
  3. Letters reveal scientist's compromising passion: Einstein's affair with a spy from Moscow; Evidence found in Russia shows that the father of modern physics had a long relationship with a Soviet agent who was trying to extract nuclear secrets while the US was developing the atom bomb. MARTIN KETTLE. The Guardian (London). p.3. June 2, 1998.
  4. Love Letters By Einstein At Auction. ROBIN POGREBIN. The New York Times. Section A; Page 10; Column 1; National Desk. June 1, 1998. www.nytimes.com
  5. New book describes FBI pursuit of Einstein. By Dennis Overbye New York Times News Service. Deseret News (Salt Lake City). WIRE; Pg. A01. May 7, 2002.
  6. See also The Einstein File: J. Edgar Hoover's Secret War Against the World's Most Famous Scientist, by Fred Jerome.
  7. A Friend of the Einsteins. By Philip Marriott. Moscow News (Russia). CULTURE; No. 36. September 22, 2004.

Further reading

  • The Uncommon Vision of Sergei Konenkov, 1874-1971: A Russian Sculptor and His Times. Marie Turbow Lampard (Editor), John E. Bowlt (Editor). Rutgers University Press (March 1, 2001). (ISBN 0-8135-2854-2).

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