Fyodor Schechtel
Encyclopedia
Fyodor Osipovich Schechtel was a Russia
n architect
, graphic artist and stage designer, the most influential and prolific master of Russian Art Nouveau
and late Russian Revival
.
Baptised as Franz Albert Schechtel (also transliterated as Shekhtel), he created most of his work as Franz Schechtel (Франц Шехтель), changing his name to Fyodor with the outbreak of World War I
. In two decades of independent practice he completed five theaters, five churches, 39 private residences, Yaroslavsky Rail Terminal
and various other buildings, primarily in Moscow. Most of his legacy survives to date.
engineers in Saint Petersburg
, the second of five children. His parents were Volga Germans of Saratov
. His mother, born Daria Karlovna Zhegin, came from a family of Saratov merchants. Schechtel's uncle on his father's side, also named Franz Schechtel, was an established businessman in Saratov. He is credited with building the first theater in Saratov. See also a photocopy of the Schechtel family tree.
The Schechtel family relocated to Saratov in 1865 to assist the ailing Franz Sr. in business. Both brothers, Franz Sr. and Osip, died in 1867. Business debts ruined their families, forcing Daria Karlovna to seek free boarding schools for the children; she relocated to Moscow and worked for Pavel Tretyakov
. Franz attended a free Roman Catholic
seminary
in Saratov, graduating in 1875. However, he received his high school diploma only in 1880, when he was drafted into the Russian Imperial Army
(Schechtel was eventually relieved from service).
. He was expelled in 1878 for "bad attendance." 19-year-old Franz made his living by assisting architect Alexander Kaminsky
(a relative of Pavel Tretyakov
), in painting icon
s, church fresco
es and daily illustrations for newspapers and magazines. There he met author and playwright Anton Chekhov
and his brother Nikolay Chekhov. Schechtel illustrated a book for Chekhov in 1886, who then recommended Schechtel to other clients. This experience (as well as the Tretyakov connection) familiarized Franz with Moscow's artistic circles and the wealthy patrons of the arts who would become his future clients, notably the Morozov family of Old Believers
.
Throughout the 1880s, Schechtel completed many theatrical stage designs; most of his graphics from this period have been lost, excluding a small fraction stored at the Bakhrushin Museum in Moscow.
artwork - is a mix of Gothic architecture
and romanticism
. His style during the 1890s meanders between Gothic and Russian Revival
. The first sign of a new, mature style (a Russian version of Art Nouveau
, Russky Modern), appears in his 1899 Arshinov House in Malaya Ordynka Street.
Schechtel's turn to Art Nouveau is associated with the 1900 Levenson Printshop in Trekhprudny Lane, in Patriarshy Ponds
, a well-to-do neighborhood near Moscow's center. Patriarshy Ponds is still home to many of Schechtel's works, including two of his own residences from 1896 and 1910. Schechtel designed the Printshop to have Gothic trim, but changed his plan midway through construction. His "Popov Tea House" pavilion at the Exposition Universelle (1900)
in Paris earned a silver medal, exposing him to international fame (diploma). At home, he was inducted as a member of the Imperial Academy of Arts
in 1902 (photograph of diploma).
1899-1903 were Schechtel's most productive years. In this period, he designed (in Moscow alone, not including out-of-town commissions):
Unlike his rival Lev Kekushev
, Schechtel never committed himself to a single style. His Yaroslavsky Terminal and Ryabushinsky House are distinct, setting two trends of Schechtel's future work: the internationalized, refined Art Nouveau and the last round of Russian Revival before the Revolution of 1917
.
In the aftermath of the Russian Revolution of 1905
the Russian government lifted all limitations on Old Believers
, and they responded by commissioning churches to be built all over the country. In 1909 Schechtel won an open contest to construct Belokrinitskoe Soglasie
church in Balakovo
, financed by the Balakovo-based Maltsev brothers. By this time, Schechtel (a Roman Catholic) had firmly established himself within the Old Believer community, having done previous projects for the Maltsevs. Schechtel designed an eight-faceted tented church, borrowing elements from the style of the Church of Ascension at Kolomenskoye
in Moscow and older architectural traditions of the Russian North. The church, which could accommodate 1,200 worshippers, was completed in 1912, but was later destroyed during the Soviet period. It is now being rebuilt by the Russian Orthodox Church
).
After 1905, Schechtel was famous for his office buildings, applying Art Nouveau concepts to steel frame structures, notably the 1907 Ryabushinsky Printshop in Putinkovsky Lane (photographs, floorplan) and the 1909 Merchant's Society offices in Cherkassky Lanes (photograph, floorplans, the latter damaged by inadequate replacement of the original windows). Emphasis on the top floor ornamentation, witnessed in the Merchant Society Building, became a key feature in the so-called Rationalist Modern trend in commercial architectural design.
In 1909 Schechtel turned to Neoclassical Revival
, building his own (third) residence on the Garden Ring
in strict Doric style. He began taking more commissions outside Moscow, notably in Nizhny Novgorod
, his hometown of Saratov, and Taganrog, including the neoclassical Chekhov Library
in 1914. Vladimir Lenin
's refuge in 1923-1924, the neoclassical Gorki Leninskiye
estate (formerly Morozov property), is also Schechtel's design.
in 1914, which halted practically all new construction for a decade, brought an end to Schechtel's professional career. His last work before the revolution was a wooden tented church in the Moscow suburb of Solomennaya Storozhka, funded by the Tula Militia training camp. Schechtel modelled the church on historical Olonetz area models (excluding the integrated bellfry, which was uncommon for Olonetz architecture). The church was closed in the 1930s, neglected and eventually demolished in the 1960s; a wooden replica was built in 1996-1997. Schectel's only post-1917 work, a pavilion at the 1923 All-Russia Agricultural Exhibition, met a similar fate.
Shechtel cooperated with various planning and design agencies, continued teaching at Stroganov School of Arts and VKhuTEMAS
, and even applied to the 1925 Lenin Mausoleum contest (Schechtel's entry), but did not build anything anymore. Construction in the USSR, halted by a decade of hostilities, resumed in 1926, the year of Schechtel's death.
In 1918, the architect was evicted from his house on Bolshaya Sadovaya and had to live with his daughter, Vera Tonkova (née Schechtel). Of Schechtel's four children, two of them — Vera Tonkova and Lev Zhegin — would become well-known artists. According to several accounts, however, Schechtel died in bitter poverty. He was interred at Vagankovo Cemetery
.
Schechtel's Art Nouveau was despised by Soviet critics as rotten formalism
until the Brezhnev
period. At the same time, his Neo-Russian structures, like Yaroslavsky Terminal, which matched the patriotic Soviet rhetoric quite well, were at first tolerated and later praised. Many of his Moscow mansions were leased to foreign embassies, have been well maintained and are still in good order inside and out. His public buildings, including his theaters and the Taganrog Library, also remain close to their original design externally.
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
, graphic artist and stage designer, the most influential and prolific master of Russian Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau is an international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that were most popular during 1890–1910. The name "Art Nouveau" is French for "new art"...
and late Russian Revival
Russian Revival
The Russian Revival style is the generic term for a number of different movements within Russian architecture that arose in second quarter of the 19th century and was an eclectic melding of pre-Peterine Russian architecture and elements of Byzantine architecture.The Russian Revival style arose...
.
Baptised as Franz Albert Schechtel (also transliterated as Shekhtel), he created most of his work as Franz Schechtel (Франц Шехтель), changing his name to Fyodor with the outbreak of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. In two decades of independent practice he completed five theaters, five churches, 39 private residences, Yaroslavsky Rail Terminal
Yaroslavsky Rail Terminal
Yaroslavsky Rail Terminal is one of the nine railway terminals in Moscow, situated on the Komsomolskaya Square. It has the highest passenger throughput of all the nine Moscow rail terminals, serving eastern destinations, including the Russian Far East. It is the terminus of the Trans-Siberian...
and various other buildings, primarily in Moscow. Most of his legacy survives to date.
Early life
Franz Schechtel (Russified as Fyodor Osipovich) was born to a family of ethnic GermanEthnic German
Ethnic Germans historically also ), also collectively referred to as the German diaspora, refers to people who are of German ethnicity. Many are not born in Europe or in the modern-day state of Germany or hold German citizenship...
engineers in Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
, the second of five children. His parents were Volga Germans of Saratov
Saratov
-Modern Saratov:The Saratov region is highly industrialized, due in part to the rich in natural and industrial resources of the area. The region is also one of the more important and largest cultural and scientific centres in Russia...
. His mother, born Daria Karlovna Zhegin, came from a family of Saratov merchants. Schechtel's uncle on his father's side, also named Franz Schechtel, was an established businessman in Saratov. He is credited with building the first theater in Saratov. See also a photocopy of the Schechtel family tree.
The Schechtel family relocated to Saratov in 1865 to assist the ailing Franz Sr. in business. Both brothers, Franz Sr. and Osip, died in 1867. Business debts ruined their families, forcing Daria Karlovna to seek free boarding schools for the children; she relocated to Moscow and worked for Pavel Tretyakov
Pavel Tretyakov
Pavel Mikhaylovich Tretyakov was a Russian businessman, patron of art, collector, and philanthropist who gave his name to the Tretyakov Gallery and Tretyakov Drive in Moscow. His brother S.M. Tretyakov was also a famous patron of art and a philanthropist....
. Franz attended a free Roman Catholic
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
seminary
Seminary
A seminary, theological college, or divinity school is an institution of secondary or post-secondary education for educating students in theology, generally to prepare them for ordination as clergy or for other ministry...
in Saratov, graduating in 1875. However, he received his high school diploma only in 1880, when he was drafted into the Russian Imperial Army
Military history of Imperial Russia
The Military history of the Russian Empire encompasses the history of armed conflict in which the Empire participated. This history stretches from its creation in 1721 by Peter the Great, until the Russian Revolution , which led to the establishment of the Soviet Union...
(Schechtel was eventually relieved from service).
An emerging artist
In 1875 Schechtel arrived in Moscow and attended architectural classes at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and ArchitectureMoscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture
The Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture was one of the largest educational institutions in Russia. The school was formed by the 1865 merger of a private art college, established in Moscow in 1832, and the Palace School of Architecture, established in 1749 by Dmitry Ukhtomsky. By...
. He was expelled in 1878 for "bad attendance." 19-year-old Franz made his living by assisting architect Alexander Kaminsky
Alexander Kaminsky
Alexander Stepanovich Kaminsky was a Russian architect working in Moscow and suburbs. One of the most successul and prolific architects of 1860s - 1880s, Kaminsky was a faithful eclecticist, equally skilled in Russian Revival, Neo-Gothic and Renaissance Revival architecture...
(a relative of Pavel Tretyakov
Pavel Tretyakov
Pavel Mikhaylovich Tretyakov was a Russian businessman, patron of art, collector, and philanthropist who gave his name to the Tretyakov Gallery and Tretyakov Drive in Moscow. His brother S.M. Tretyakov was also a famous patron of art and a philanthropist....
), in painting icon
Icon
An icon is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, from Eastern Christianity and in certain Eastern Catholic churches...
s, church fresco
Fresco
Fresco is any of several related mural painting types, executed on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Greek word affresca which derives from the Latin word for "fresh". Frescoes first developed in the ancient world and continued to be popular through the Renaissance...
es and daily illustrations for newspapers and magazines. There he met author and playwright Anton Chekhov
Anton Chekhov
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian physician, dramatist and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics...
and his brother Nikolay Chekhov. Schechtel illustrated a book for Chekhov in 1886, who then recommended Schechtel to other clients. This experience (as well as the Tretyakov connection) familiarized Franz with Moscow's artistic circles and the wealthy patrons of the arts who would become his future clients, notably the Morozov family of Old Believers
Old Believers
In the context of Russian Orthodox church history, the Old Believers separated after 1666 from the official Russian Orthodox Church as a protest against church reforms introduced by Patriarch Nikon between 1652–66...
.
Throughout the 1880s, Schechtel completed many theatrical stage designs; most of his graphics from this period have been lost, excluding a small fraction stored at the Bakhrushin Museum in Moscow.
Early architecture
Schechtel obtained a construction management license in 1894. His earlier projects, completed under Kaminsky's management, are sometimes credited to Kaminsky alone. Schechtel's first own, undisputed building - Zinaida Morozova House in Spiridonovka Street, 1893, famous for Mikhail VrubelMikhail Vrubel
Mikhail Aleksandrovich Vrubel is usually regarded amongst the Russian painters of the Symbolist movement. In reality, he deliberately stood aloof from contemporary art trends, so that the origin of his unusual manner should be sought in Late Byzantine and Early Renaissance painting.-Early...
artwork - is a mix of Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
and romanticism
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
. His style during the 1890s meanders between Gothic and Russian Revival
Russian Revival
The Russian Revival style is the generic term for a number of different movements within Russian architecture that arose in second quarter of the 19th century and was an eclectic melding of pre-Peterine Russian architecture and elements of Byzantine architecture.The Russian Revival style arose...
. The first sign of a new, mature style (a Russian version of Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau is an international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that were most popular during 1890–1910. The name "Art Nouveau" is French for "new art"...
, Russky Modern), appears in his 1899 Arshinov House in Malaya Ordynka Street.
Art Nouveau
Patriarshy Ponds
Patriarshiye Ponds , nicknamed Patriki , is an affluent residential area in downtown Presnensky District of Moscow, Russia. For the last 200 years, there has been only one pond, although, as the name of Tryokhprudny Pereulok suggests, there used to be more. The area of the existing pond is ; the...
, a well-to-do neighborhood near Moscow's center. Patriarshy Ponds is still home to many of Schechtel's works, including two of his own residences from 1896 and 1910. Schechtel designed the Printshop to have Gothic trim, but changed his plan midway through construction. His "Popov Tea House" pavilion at the Exposition Universelle (1900)
Exposition Universelle (1900)
The Exposition Universelle of 1900 was a world's fair held in Paris, France, from April 15 to November 12, 1900, to celebrate the achievements of the past century and to accelerate development into the next...
in Paris earned a silver medal, exposing him to international fame (diploma). At home, he was inducted as a member of the Imperial Academy of Arts
Imperial Academy of Arts
The Russian Academy of Arts, informally known as the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, was founded in 1757 by Ivan Shuvalov under the name Academy of the Three Noblest Arts. Catherine the Great renamed it the Imperial Academy of Arts and commissioned a new building, completed 25 years later in 1789...
in 1902 (photograph of diploma).
1899-1903 were Schechtel's most productive years. In this period, he designed (in Moscow alone, not including out-of-town commissions):
- 1899: Arshinov House (32, Bolshaya Ordynka) and offices (5, Staropansky Lane)
- 1900: Lutheran chapel (7, Starosadsky Lane)
- 1900: Levenson Printshop (9, Trekhprudny Lane)
- 1900: Ryabushinsky Mansion (6, Malaya Nikitskaya Street), also known as the Maxim GorkyMaxim GorkyAlexei Maximovich Peshkov , primarily known as Maxim Gorky , was a Russian and Soviet author, a founder of the Socialist Realism literary method and a political activist.-Early years:...
house - 1901: Derozhinskaya Mansion (7, Kropotkinsky Lane)
- 1901: "Boyarsky Dvor" hotel and offices (1, Staraya Square) photographs, floorplan
- 1901: Kahn apartment building (35, Malaya Nikitskaya Street)
- 1902: Yaroslavsky Rail TerminalYaroslavsky Rail TerminalYaroslavsky Rail Terminal is one of the nine railway terminals in Moscow, situated on the Komsomolskaya Square. It has the highest passenger throughput of all the nine Moscow rail terminals, serving eastern destinations, including the Russian Far East. It is the terminus of the Trans-Siberian...
(completed 1904), the most visible of his Moscow works - 1902: St.Nicholas chapel (Tverskaya-Yamskaya Street) destroyed 1930s
- 1900-1903: Moscow Art TheatreMoscow Art TheatreThe Moscow Art Theatre is a theatre company in Moscow that the seminal Russian theatre practitioner Constantin Stanislavski, together with the playwright and director Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, founded in 1898. It was conceived as a venue for naturalistic theatre, in contrast to the melodramas...
reconstruction (facade curtain artwork) - 1901-1903: Smirnov House reconstruction (18, Tverskoy BoulevardTverskoy BoulevardTverskoy Boulevard is one of the main thoroughfares in central Moscow. It is a part of the Boulevard Ring and begins at the end of the Nikitsky Boulevard, at the crossing with Nikitsky Street. The boulevard ends at the Pushkin Square and Tverskaya Street, one of the busiest places in Moscow...
) - 1903: Ryabushinsky Bank (Birzhevaya Square)
Unlike his rival Lev Kekushev
Lev Kekushev
Lev Nikolayevich Kekushev was a Russian architect, notable for his Art Nouveau buildings in Moscow, built in the 1890s and early 1900s in the original, Franco-Belgian variety of this style...
, Schechtel never committed himself to a single style. His Yaroslavsky Terminal and Ryabushinsky House are distinct, setting two trends of Schechtel's future work: the internationalized, refined Art Nouveau and the last round of Russian Revival before the Revolution of 1917
Russian Revolution of 1917
The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...
.
Mature years
Russian Revolution of 1905
The 1905 Russian Revolution was a wave of mass political and social unrest that spread through vast areas of the Russian Empire. Some of it was directed against the government, while some was undirected. It included worker strikes, peasant unrest, and military mutinies...
the Russian government lifted all limitations on Old Believers
Old Believers
In the context of Russian Orthodox church history, the Old Believers separated after 1666 from the official Russian Orthodox Church as a protest against church reforms introduced by Patriarch Nikon between 1652–66...
, and they responded by commissioning churches to be built all over the country. In 1909 Schechtel won an open contest to construct Belokrinitskoe Soglasie
Belokrinitskoe Soglasie
Belokrinitskoe soglasie is the largest and one of the most 'temperate' and 'optimistic' denominations among the Popovtsy Old Believers. The name derives from the name of the village Belokrinitsa, where the full hierarchy of the Russian Orthodox Oldrite Church was established.From the end of 1840,...
church in Balakovo
Balakovo
-Twin towns/sister cities:Balakovo is twinned with: Pabianice, Poland Trnava, Slovakia Scranton, Pennsylvania, United States Baku, Azerbaijan-References:...
, financed by the Balakovo-based Maltsev brothers. By this time, Schechtel (a Roman Catholic) had firmly established himself within the Old Believer community, having done previous projects for the Maltsevs. Schechtel designed an eight-faceted tented church, borrowing elements from the style of the Church of Ascension at Kolomenskoye
Kolomenskoye
Kolomenskoye is a former royal estate situated several kilometers to the south-east of the city-centre of Moscow, Russia, on the ancient road leading to the town of Kolomna...
in Moscow and older architectural traditions of the Russian North. The church, which could accommodate 1,200 worshippers, was completed in 1912, but was later destroyed during the Soviet period. It is now being rebuilt by the Russian Orthodox Church
Russian Orthodox Church
The Russian Orthodox Church or, alternatively, the Moscow Patriarchate The ROC is often said to be the largest of the Eastern Orthodox churches in the world; including all the autocephalous churches under its umbrella, its adherents number over 150 million worldwide—about half of the 300 million...
).
After 1905, Schechtel was famous for his office buildings, applying Art Nouveau concepts to steel frame structures, notably the 1907 Ryabushinsky Printshop in Putinkovsky Lane (photographs, floorplan) and the 1909 Merchant's Society offices in Cherkassky Lanes (photograph, floorplans, the latter damaged by inadequate replacement of the original windows). Emphasis on the top floor ornamentation, witnessed in the Merchant Society Building, became a key feature in the so-called Rationalist Modern trend in commercial architectural design.
Neoclassical architecture
Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing...
, building his own (third) residence on the Garden Ring
Garden Ring
The Garden Ring, also known as the "B" Ring , is a circular avenue around the central Moscow, its course corresponding to what used to be the city ramparts surrounding Zemlyanoy Gorod in the 17th century....
in strict Doric style. He began taking more commissions outside Moscow, notably in Nizhny Novgorod
Nizhny Novgorod
Nizhny Novgorod , colloquially shortened to Nizhny, is, with the population of 1,250,615, the fifth largest city in Russia, ranking after Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, and Yekaterinburg...
, his hometown of Saratov, and Taganrog, including the neoclassical Chekhov Library
Chekhov Library
Chekhov Library in Taganrog is the oldest library in the South of Russia.-Foundation history:...
in 1914. Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
's refuge in 1923-1924, the neoclassical Gorki Leninskiye
Gorki Leninskiye
Gorki Leninskiye is an urban locality in Leninsky District of Moscow Oblast, Russia, south of Moscow city limits and the MKAD. Population:...
estate (formerly Morozov property), is also Schechtel's design.
Death and legacy
The advent of World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
in 1914, which halted practically all new construction for a decade, brought an end to Schechtel's professional career. His last work before the revolution was a wooden tented church in the Moscow suburb of Solomennaya Storozhka, funded by the Tula Militia training camp. Schechtel modelled the church on historical Olonetz area models (excluding the integrated bellfry, which was uncommon for Olonetz architecture). The church was closed in the 1930s, neglected and eventually demolished in the 1960s; a wooden replica was built in 1996-1997. Schectel's only post-1917 work, a pavilion at the 1923 All-Russia Agricultural Exhibition, met a similar fate.
Shechtel cooperated with various planning and design agencies, continued teaching at Stroganov School of Arts and VKhuTEMAS
VKhUTEMAS
Vkhutemas ) was the Russian state art and technical school founded in 1920 in Moscow, replacing the Moscow Svomas. The workshops were established by a decree from Vladimir Lenin with the intentions, in the words of the Soviet government, "to prepare master artists of the highest qualifications for...
, and even applied to the 1925 Lenin Mausoleum contest (Schechtel's entry), but did not build anything anymore. Construction in the USSR, halted by a decade of hostilities, resumed in 1926, the year of Schechtel's death.
In 1918, the architect was evicted from his house on Bolshaya Sadovaya and had to live with his daughter, Vera Tonkova (née Schechtel). Of Schechtel's four children, two of them — Vera Tonkova and Lev Zhegin — would become well-known artists. According to several accounts, however, Schechtel died in bitter poverty. He was interred at Vagankovo Cemetery
Vagankovo Cemetery
Vagan'kovskoye Cemetery , established in 1771, is located in the Krasnaya Presnya district of Moscow...
.
Schechtel's Art Nouveau was despised by Soviet critics as rotten formalism
Formalism (art)
In art theory, formalism is the concept that a work's artistic value is entirely determined by its form--the way it is made, its purely visual aspects, and its medium. Formalism emphasizes compositional elements such as color, line, shape and texture rather than realism, context, and content...
until the Brezhnev
Leonid Brezhnev
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev – 10 November 1982) was the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , presiding over the country from 1964 until his death in 1982. His eighteen-year term as General Secretary was second only to that of Joseph Stalin in...
period. At the same time, his Neo-Russian structures, like Yaroslavsky Terminal, which matched the patriotic Soviet rhetoric quite well, were at first tolerated and later praised. Many of his Moscow mansions were leased to foreign embassies, have been well maintained and are still in good order inside and out. His public buildings, including his theaters and the Taganrog Library, also remain close to their original design externally.
Buildings
- 1884: Shchapov Building (58, Baumanskaya Street, Moscow) - assistant to Alexander Kaminsky. First record of Schechtel's architecture.
- 1886: Paradise Theater (Bolshaya Nikitskaya, Moscow, now Mayakovsky Theater), with Konstantin Tersky
- 1887: (draft) Archangel Michael chapel, TaganrogTaganrogTaganrog is a seaport city in Rostov Oblast, Russia, located on the north shore of Taganrog Bay , several kilometers west of the mouth of the Don River. Population: -History of Taganrog:...
- 1889: Own (first) house (20, Peterburg Highway, Moscow, destroyed 1937)
- 1889: Von Dervis estates, Ryazan OblastRyazan OblastRyazan Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Ryazan, which is the oblast's largest city. Population: -Geography:...
gallery - 1889: Morozov memorial chapel (Rogozhskoye CemeteryRogozhskoye CemeteryRogozhskoe cemetery in Moscow, Russia, is the spiritual and administrative center of the largest Old Believers denomination, called the Russian Orthodox Old-Rite Church. Historically, the name cemetery was applied to the whole Old Believer community, with living quarters, cathedral, almshouses,...
, Moscow) - 1892: Morozov House (KirzhachKirzhachKirzhach is a town on the Kirzhach River in Vladimir Oblast, Russia, located in the western of the oblast, west of Vladimir and south of Alexandrov. Population: -History:...
) - 1890: Lukalov country estate (Velikoye, Yaroslavl OblastYaroslavl OblastYaroslavl Oblast is a federal subject of Russia , which is located in the Central Federal District, surrounded by Tver, Moscow, Ivanovo, Vladimir, Kostroma, and Vologda Oblasts. This geographic location affords the oblast the advantages of proximity to Moscow and St. Petersburg...
) photo - 1891: Vikula Morozov country estate (Odintsovo-Arkhangeskoye, near Domodedovo) rebuilt and(or) destroyed Gates, 1900s see also
- 1893: Zinaida Morozova House (Spiridonovka Street, Moscow)
- 1896: Kuznetsov House (43, Prospekt Mira, Moscow)
- 1896: Own (second) House (28, Yermolaevsky Lane, Moscow)
- 1897: Varvara Morozova memorial chapel (Preobrazhenskoye CemeteryPreobrazhenskoye CemeteryPreobrazhenka Cemetery is a cemetery in the northern part of Moscow long associated with Old Believers. It was inaugurated by a Fedoseevtsy merchant in 1777 as a plague quarantine disguising the Bespopovtsy monastery. At that time the territory of the cemetery was located outside Moscow, but near...
, Moscow) - 1897: (draft) People's House in SokolnikiSokolnikiSokolniki may refer to:*Sokolniki District, a district of Eastern Administrative Okrug, Moscow, Russia*Sokolniki, Tula Oblast, a town in Tula Oblast, Russia*Sokolniki, name of several rural localities in Russia...
, MoscowMoscowMoscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
draft - 1899: Zakharyin memorial chapel (KurkinoKurkinoKurkino may refer to:*Kurkino District, a district in the North-Western Administrative Okrug of Moscow, Russia*Kurkino , name of several inhabited localities in Russia...
, now Moscow) - 1899: Arshinov House (32, Bolshaya Ordynka, Moscow)
- 1899: Arshinov offices (5, Staropansky Lane, Moscow)
- 1900: Lutheran chapel (7, Starosadsky Lane, Moscow)
- 1900: Ryabushinsky Mansion (Malaya Nikitskaya Street, Moscow)
- 1900: Church of the Saviour, IvanovoIvanovoIvanovo is a city and the administrative center of Ivanovo Oblast, Russia. Population: Ivanovo has traditionally been called the textile capital of Russia. Since most textile workers are women, it has also been known as the "City of Brides"...
(Byzantine Revival style, completed 1903, destroyed 1937) - 1900: Maltsev House (75, Kommunisticheskaya Street, BalakovoBalakovo-Twin towns/sister cities:Balakovo is twinned with: Pabianice, Poland Trnava, Slovakia Scranton, Pennsylvania, United States Baku, Azerbaijan-References:...
) www.museum.ru - 1901: Derozhinskaya Mansion (Kropotkinsky Lane, Moscow, currently Embassy of AustraliaAustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
) - 1901: Russian Pavilion at Glasgow ExhibitionGlasgow International Exhibition (1901)The Glasgow International Exhibition was the second of 4 international exhibitions held in Glasgow, Scotland during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.-Summary:...
- 1901: "Boyarsky Dvor" hotel and offices (Staraya Square, Moscow photographs, floorplan
- 1901: Kahn apartment building (35, Malaya Nikitskaya Street, Moscow)
- 1902: Yaroslavsky Rail TerminalYaroslavsky Rail TerminalYaroslavsky Rail Terminal is one of the nine railway terminals in Moscow, situated on the Komsomolskaya Square. It has the highest passenger throughput of all the nine Moscow rail terminals, serving eastern destinations, including the Russian Far East. It is the terminus of the Trans-Siberian...
(completed 1904) - 1902: St.Nicholas chapel (Tverskaya-Yamskaya Street, Moscow) destroyed 1930s
- 1900-1903: Moscow Art TheatreMoscow Art TheatreThe Moscow Art Theatre is a theatre company in Moscow that the seminal Russian theatre practitioner Constantin Stanislavski, together with the playwright and director Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, founded in 1898. It was conceived as a venue for naturalistic theatre, in contrast to the melodramas...
reconstruction (facade curtain artwork) - 1901-1903: Smirnov House (18, Tverskoy BoulevardTverskoy BoulevardTverskoy Boulevard is one of the main thoroughfares in central Moscow. It is a part of the Boulevard Ring and begins at the end of the Nikitsky Boulevard, at the crossing with Nikitsky Street. The boulevard ends at the Pushkin Square and Tverskaya Street, one of the busiest places in Moscow...
, reconstruction of earlier structure) - 1903: Ryabushinsky Bank (Birzhevaya Square, Moscow)
- 1904: Stroganov School apartment building (24, Myasnitskaya Street, Moscow) photographs, floorplan
- 1904?: Kharitonenko House (12, Sofiyskaya Embankment, Moscow, former Gustav List house, now Embassy of United KingdomUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
) with Vasily Zalessky - 1904?: Anton Chekhov's tomb Novodevichy CemeteryNovodevichy CemeteryNovodevichy Cemetery is the most famous cemetery in Moscow, Russia. It is next to the 16th-century Novodevichy Convent, which is the city's third most popular tourist site. It should not be confused with the Novodevichy Cemetery in Saint Petersburg....
- 1905: Old Believers' Church house (4, Turchaninov Lane, Moscow)
- 1906: Levenson House ("Teremok", 4, Chobotovsky Proezd, Moscow)
- 1907: Ryabushinsky Printshop ("Utro Rossii", 3, Bolshoy Putinkovsky Lane, Moscow, completed 1909) photographs, floorplan
- 1907: Patrikeev House (6, Pravoberezhnaya Street, Moscow, now within Hospital No.1)
- 1908: Winter Theater (55, Krasnaya Street, KrasnodarKrasnodarKrasnodar is a city in Southern Russia, located on the Kuban River about northeast of the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk. It is the administrative center of Krasnodar Krai . Population: -Name:...
) with Alexander Kozlov - 1909: Merchants' Society offices (2, Maly Cherkassky Lane, Moscow) photograph, floorplans
- 1909: Apartment building (13, Pyatnitskaya, Moscow)
- 1909: "Khudozhestvenny" Cinema (Arbat SquareArbat SquareArbatskaya Square of Arbat Square is one of the oldest squares of Moscow, located on the junction of Gogolevsky Boulevard, Znamenka Street and Arbat Gates Square ....
, Moscow) - 1909: Shamshin apartment building (8/13, Znamenka Street, Moscow)
- 1909: Zakharyin Hospital (KurkinoKurkinoKurkino may refer to:*Kurkino District, a district in the North-Western Administrative Okrug of Moscow, Russia*Kurkino , name of several inhabited localities in Russia...
, now Moscow) with Igor GrabarIgor GrabarIgor Emmanuilovich Grabar was a Russian post-impressionist painter, publisher, restorer and historian of art. Grabar, descendant of a wealthy Rusyn family, was trained as a painter by Ilya Repin in Saint Petersburg and by Anton Ažbe in Munich... - 1909: Stroganov School Store (Rozhdestvenka Street, Moscow)
- 1909: Own (third) house (4, Bolshaya Sadovaya Street, Moscow)
- 1909: Zinaida Morozova (Zimina) estate, now Gorki LeninskiyeGorki LeninskiyeGorki Leninskiye is an urban locality in Leninsky District of Moscow Oblast, Russia, south of Moscow city limits and the MKAD. Population:...
, completed 1914 - 1910: (draft) Bank Offices (Nikolskaya Street, Moscow)
- 1911: Chekhov LibraryChekhov LibraryChekhov Library in Taganrog is the oldest library in the South of Russia.-Foundation history:...
, Taganrog draft, completed 1914 - 1911: Rukavishnikov House (39, Bolshaya Pokrovskaya Street, Nizhny NovgorodNizhny NovgorodNizhny Novgorod , colloquially shortened to Nizhny, is, with the population of 1,250,615, the fifth largest city in Russia, ranking after Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, and Yekaterinburg...
, later a concert hall) 1980s photo - 1912: Sharonov MansionTaganrog City Architectural Development MuseumMuseum's building represents one of the city's architectural pearls. The modern-style mansion was built by the project of the architect Fyodor Schechtel in 1912 and belonged to merchant Sharonov...
(80, Frunze Street, Taganrog) - 1911: Reyneke House (22, Sobornaya, SaratovSaratov-Modern Saratov:The Saratov region is highly industrialized, due in part to the rich in natural and industrial resources of the area. The region is also one of the more important and largest cultural and scientific centres in Russia...
) - 1913: Rukavishnikov Bank (23, Rozhdestvenskaya, Nizhny NovgorodNizhny NovgorodNizhny Novgorod , colloquially shortened to Nizhny, is, with the population of 1,250,615, the fifth largest city in Russia, ranking after Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, and Yekaterinburg...
) 1980s photo: Embankment facade Street facade - 1913: Mindovskaya House (9, Vspolny Lane, Moscow)
- 1913?: Suroshnikov House (SamaraSamara, RussiaSamara , is the sixth largest city in Russia. It is situated in the southeastern part of European Russia at the confluence of the Volga and Samara Rivers. Samara is the administrative center of Samara Oblast. Population: . The metropolitan area of Samara-Tolyatti-Syzran within Samara Oblast...
) photo - 1914: Erlanger crypt (Vvedenskoye cemetery, Moscow)
- 1914: (draft) Museum in Nizhny NovgorodNizhny NovgorodNizhny Novgorod , colloquially shortened to Nizhny, is, with the population of 1,250,615, the fifth largest city in Russia, ranking after Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, and Yekaterinburg...
draft - 1916: St.Nicholas Church of Tula Druzhina (Solomennaya Storozhka, Moscow, destroyed 1960) exterior interior photo The wooden tented church was rebuilt in 1996-1997: Official site
- 1923: Turkestan Pavilion, All-Russian Exhibition in Moscow
- 1925: (draft) Lenin Mausoleum www.utopia.ru
See also
- William Craft Brumfield. The Origins of Modernism in Russian Architecture (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991) ISBN 0520069293
- William C. Brumfield, "Fedor Shekhtel: Aesthetic Idealism in Modernist Architecture",1991 www.cdlib.org