Fedot Ivanovich Shubin (1740-1805)
The work of Fedot Shubin, like that of all the great eighteenth century masters, does not belong only to its own age. Covering a broad range of genres - portrait, monumental and decorative sculpture, bas-relief - it achieves such psychological depth and plastic perfection, especially in his portraits, that Shubin can be considered one of the great masters of world art.
He was born in a fishing village in the Arkhangelsk gubernia in the north of Russia. His father, Ivan Shubnoi, a free peasant, was literate and was Mikhail Lomonosov's first teacher. The Shubnoi family worked as fishermen, ploughmen, and carved bones and mother-of-pearl.
In the winter of 1759, after his father's death, Fedot Shubnoi followed Lomonosov's example and joined a group of merchants travelling to the capital with a gish transporter. For two years the young man carved snuff-boxes, fans, combs and other knick-knacks which sold well in St.-Petersburg.
In November 1761, under the patronage of Mikhail Lomonosov and the first trustee of the Academy of Arts, Count Shuvalov, he was enrolled as a student under the name Fedot Shubin.
Shubin studied arduosly and was regularly given awards and praise. In June 1766 his bas-relief *The Killing of Askold and Dir* earned him a Grand Gold Medal and 'Certificate with Sword' - which meant that he attained the first rank of officer and entered the nobility.
Shubin's academy works, including genre statuettes, have not been preserved. In recognition of his 'good success and honest, laudable behaviour' he was sent in May 1767 with a group of state-supported artists to study in Paris. Here he came under the guardianship of the Russian ambassador Dmitry Golitsyn, an enlighted, progressive man and a great connoisseur and patron of art. On the advice of Diderot, who was a friend of Golitsyn's, Shubin was assigned to study under the sculptor Jean-Batiste Pigalle, who was famous both for his allegorical and mythological compositions and for his realistic sculptured portraits. Under his guidance, Shubin copied the works of contemporary French sculptors and antique statues and modelled basreliefs from pictures by Raphael and Poussin. But Pigalle made his pupil work most of all from nature. In the evenings Shubin attended a class in the art of modelling from nature at the Paris Academy of Arts, and he frequently visited the Royal Library and the studios of wellknown sculptors. '...There is no interesting or worthwhile place in Paris', he wrote to St.-Petersburg, 'which we miss, and we spare no effort to broaden our minds.'
After three years in Paris, at the end of 1770, Shubin had the permission of the Academy to go to Rome. The next year he painted a portrait of Count Shuvalov (1771) and his nepnep Fyodor Golitsyn (1771). Also successful was his marbel bust of Catherine II, despite the fact she did not sit for him. It was at this time that the Empress's favorites, Alexei and Fyodor Orlov, commissioned Shubin to paint their restraintand by the realistic tendencies in the interpretation of the models.
In 1772, while travelling with the Demidov brothers - the first Russian factory-owners - in Italy, Shubin stopped at Bologna, where he completed a series of works for which he was awarded the title of honorary member of the Bologna Academy - the oldest in Europe. The following summer, before returning to St.-Petersburg, Shubin and the Demidovs undertook one more jorney - to London.
The sculptor's first work in his home country was a bust of Prince Alexander Golitsyn, a diplomat during Catherine's reign (1775 RM, T.G.). This is one of Shubin's most brilliant works, and expressive image of an educated nobleman, in whom a sensitive mind merged with wordly refinement, and a sense of superiority with the tiredness of an aging man. The folds of his garment, which underline the turn in his head and shoulders, are marvellously fashioned. This work, which earned the praise of Falconet, gives some idea of what Shubin's contemporaries meant when they said that the marble 'breathed' under his chisel.
On 4 September 1774 the Academy of Arts awarded Shubin the title of academican for his bust of the Empress - in violation of the regulations, which started that this title could be awarded only for historical or mythological works. This exception was possible becaue the court aristocracy and Catharine II herself were known to be kindly disposed towards the sculptor. In the seventies Shubin produced a great many portraits, working quickly - at the rate of at least one bust per month. Everyone was eager to have his portrait done by the empress's favourite. Yet the sculptor's inexhaustible powers of observation andperspective meant tht he never repeated himself, always finding new solutions based not so much on the models' external characteristics as on their mental states.
In Shubin's portraits we see the high society of St Petersburg. Behind the superficial grace and elegance of the lady-in-waiting M.Panina, there are traces of coldness, imperiousness and arrogance. In his sculpture of the famous Field Marshal P. Rumyantsev-Zadunaisky the artists brought out features of a strong and important personality, without in the slightest embellishing his appearance.
Quite another character is revealed in the portrait of V. Orlov. In the sculptor's hands, his impossing exterior - his aristocratic carriage, his opulent drapery - is charged with irony. The dull, impudent face of this ungifted man who was head of the Academy of Sciences solely due to his family ties is reproduced with merciless realism.
The bust of the rich industrialist I. Baryshnikov is simple and severe in composition. Shubin saw this representative of the rising bourgeouse as a shrewd and intelligent businessman; his individual and social features are brilliantly blended.
Shubin revealed the innermost workings of the soul in the remarkably poetic image of an unknown young man. The calm composition and soft modelling convey the young man's state of deep thoughtfulness.
In 1774-75 Shubin worked on a portrait of Catherine II and on a series of 58 round marble bas-reliefs (about 70 cm in diameter) depicting princes and rulers from Ryurik up to Elizaveta Petrovna. The bas-reliefs were intended for the Round Hall of the Chesmensky Palace and are now kept in the Armory of the Kremlin. They were based upon descriptions of the various characters given in ancient chronicles.
Over the next ten years Shubin carried out many commissions for decorative works - statues and reliefs for the Marble Palace, sculptures for the Trinity Cathedral in the Alexander Nevsky Monastery, a marble mausoleum for Lieutenant General P. Golitsyn. Shubin's last decorative work was a statue of Pandora to replace one of the decaying leaded sculptures of Peterhof. Its prototype was Falconet's Woman Bathing, which Shubin had copied in Paris.
A special place in Shubin's work is occupied by his statue Catherine II the Legislator (1789-1790, RM). This statue was very successful, but the sculptor received no reward from the empress, nor did he obtain a post as professor at the Academy, where portraits were considered a 'low genre'.
Gradually, interest in Shubin faded. His unembellished portraits found less and less favour among his clients from the beau monde, who wished to see themselves depicted in ideal from. He received less commissions, and renumeration fell too. He was forced to seek help from G.Potyomkin, who wrote to the President of the Academy of Arts, I Betskoi, asking him to employ Shubin as assistant professor in the sculpture class. The sculptor himself also applied to the Council of the Academy for a paying position. Both letters remained unanswered. Then, in 1792, Shubin addressed himself to Catherine II: 'Your Majesty, I am in poor health and must ask you for help...' Two years passed before the celebrated sculptor was hired as a professor - but still it was not a paying position. As it was, Shubin was a sick man, burdened by a large family, and all these adversities further undermined his health, but he did not stop working. The works dating from the nineties speak eloquently of the sculptor's ability to reveal his models' characters fully and profoundly. His gallery of portraits is varied: the dried-up old warrior Admiral V. Chichagov, the good-natured, haughty sybarite G. Potyomkin, the empty, selfenamoured beau Plton Zubov, the pedantic I. Betskoi and the dullwitted, swaggering St. Petersburg mayor Ye. Chulkov.
Shubin's bust of Paul I is a true masterpiece of portraiture. It is a complex image, comprising arrogance, cold cruelty, unhealthiness and deep concealed suffering. Nonetheless Paul liked the work, apparently because of the signs of solemn majesty which he valued so highly.
Each year Shubin's position grew more difficult. In 1797 he turned to Paul for assistance, and a year later he appealed to the Academy 'to provide at least an apartment at the state's expense, and firewood and candles'. But this request, too, was given no consideration. Shubin had no means to support his family, he was beginning to go blind, and 1801 his house and studio - together with the works it contained - were burnt down.
These blows of fate did not force Shubin to compromise. In one of his last works - a bust of Alexander I (1801, Voronezh Regional Museum of Fine Arts) - there is a strain of cold indifference behind the emperior's affable exterior. Alrxander did display charity, however, and presented the sculptor with a diamond ring. The Academy, too, was at last compelled to show some concern for Shubin, and he was given the free accommodation and candles he had begged for so long In 1803, Alexander I decreed that Shubin finally be appointed assistant profesor on the paid staff of the Academy. But his health was utterly ruined, and on 12 May 1805 Shubin died.
The sculptor's death passed almost unnoticed. His realism could not possibily meet with the approval of his titled customers. It was a tragic end to the life of a man whose art, in the words of Soviet sculptress Vera Mukhina, was the 'image of the age'
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