This month we feature a stunningly detailed bronze statuette from a model by 19th century Russian sculptor Evgueni Alexandrovich Lanceray (1848 – 1886).

The Artwork

This statuette, dating to 1874, depicts a Cossack soldier sitting on his horse, weary from battle, leading another riderless horse which has a discontented look, perhaps straining to get back to its lost rider.

It is cast in bronze and measures just over 40cm on a bronze base. The work has a shiny dark brown patina. There is fine detail in the work, from the pattern on the horses’ blankets, tassels, reins and buckles, to the Cossack’s hat which is clearly made from astrachan (the skin and fleece of a newborn lamb). The artist’s signature can be clearly seen incised into the base of the statuette. There is another mark stamped into the base, perhaps a foundry mark or government stamp.

Cossacks

Cossacks were historically groups of semi-nomadic, semi-military people, inhabiting the area of Ukraine and Southern Russia.

Orthodox Christian by religion, and speaking several languages, the Cossacks were noted for their democratic traditions. They organised themselves into various groups, each with its own territory.

The Russian Empire gave the Cossacks a great degree of freedom and self-determination in return for military support. They played an important part in the cultural development of Ukraine and Russia.

The Russian Revolution started to break down Cossack society, although as late as WW2 Cossack-based units fought for both the Nazis and the Soviet Union. Their traditions were suppressed under Joseph Stalin, but in the 1980s they began to revive their culture and today up to 3.5 million people associate themselves with the Cossack cultural identity across the world.

About the Artist

Lanceray is a renowned 19th century Russian sculptor. He is best known for his bronzes of horses and warriors and soldiers on horses, as well as horses in farming scenes, ploughing and pulling carts. Much of his work was inspired by people of different societies and cultures he came across in his travels in Southern Russia, the Caucasus and beyond. Of French extraction on his father’s side, he was born in the town of Morshansk, 260 miles South East of Moscow. In 1861 he moved with his family to St Petersburg.

He studied Law at St. Petersburg University (1866–1870), to appease his family who disapproved of him becoming an artist, despite his obvious gift for fashioning horses from clay. He did not have a formal art education, but he took lessons from the distinguished maker of animal bronzes, Nikolai Ivanovich Lieberich.

He also mixed with members of the artistic fraternity in St Petersburg, even though he was studying Law. In 1867 Lanceray went to Paris to study sculpture and the process of bronze casting.

In 1883, Lanceray undertook a trip to the Middle East and Algeria and his subsequent work reflected the people he saw on his travels. After this trip however, his health, which had always been poor, deteriorated. He bought a house in the village of Neskuchnoye near Kharkiv in Ukraine, where he lived for most of the three years leading up to his death. He suffered from tuberculosis from a young age and it finally claimed his life at the age of 37.

Lanceray had six children. Two of them - Evgeny Evgenievich and Zinaida Evgenievna became artists . His youngest son Nikolai Evgenievich became an architect. His wife, Ykaterina Benois, was a painter.

With thanks to...

• Wikipedia
• Library of Congress
• Tretyakove Gallery Magazine: https://www.tretyakovgallerymagazine.com - article 'Yevgeny Lancere. Character, Feeling and Independence' by Lyubov Golovina.