Illarion Ivanov-Schitz
Encyclopedia
Illarion Ivanovich Ivanov-Schitz was a Russia
n architect
, notable for developing a unique personal style, blending the Vienna Secession
school of Otto Wagner
with Greek Revival features. His career peaked in 1902-1912 with several Moscow
buildings including the Morozov Hospital, the Merchant Club (now the Lenkom Theatre
), Moscow Savings Bank, and the public buildings in Miusskaya Square. He was one of the few architects born in the 1860s who integrated into the Soviet establishment, earning the Order of Lenin
for various resort projects and for redesigning the interiors of the Grand Kremlin Palace
in the 1930s.
Institute of Civil Engineers, which he attended from 1883–1888, with a gold medal. After a brief tour of Europe
, he relocated to Moscow, joining the firm of Max Hoppener and later working for the City of Moscow. Another visit to Europe, in 1893, exposed him to Austrian architect Otto Wagner
and his circle, who would form the Vienna Secession
group in 1897.
(Jr.), was an 1889 apartment building at 32 Tverskaya Street
, Moscow (destroyed). His early works, such as the orphanage in Devichye Pole
(1893), now housing Embassy of Vietnam
, belong to the tradition of 19th century eclecticism
, and do not stand out among hundreds of similar buildings. Over the first decade of his career, Ivanov-Schitz' style gradually moved towards Greek Revival. Collaboration with Lev Kekushev
on his railroad projects and public buildings also exposed Ivanov-Schitz to practical applications of Kekushev's Belgian-inspired variety of Art Nouveau
.
and Petrovka Street
. This building, dominated by vertical ribs, was a clear departure from eclecticism. Despite quotations from Greek architecture, it was regarded as unusually modern for its period; professionals called it "A Greek sort of Wagner" (Nachokina, p. 223).
From 1902 to 1903, Ivanov-Schitz formulated his own style, a modest blend of Secession and Greek revival. Unlike the extravagant Belgian Art Nouveau practiced by Kekushev, Ivanov's art appealed equally to financial institutions and charities; in fact, most of his works were undertaken for these two groups of clients:
After the revolution of 1905, his buildings become more rationalist
, yet they clearly belong to the same style:
s, and blended well into the new establishment. In 1922-1925, when most architects were unemployed, he had real construction jobs, expanding apartment buildings in Tverskoy Boulevard
and the Eye Hospital on the Garden Ring
.
In the 1930s, Ivanov-Schitz was a lead architect for the Medical-Sanitary Board (Лечсанупр), a state institution that catered for the Kremlin
elite. He completed various high-profile resorts in Sochi
and Barvikha
and was allowed to rebuild the halls of the Grand Kremlin Palace
so it could seat the assemblies of the Supreme Soviet
. In the 1990s, his alterations were torn down and the Palace was rebuilt to the original plans of Konstantin Thon
(1794–1881).
Illarion Ivanov-Schitz, received the Order of Lenin
. In 1937 he died and was buried with honours at Novodevichy Cemetery
in Moscow.
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...
, notable for developing a unique personal style, blending the Vienna Secession
Vienna Secession
The Vienna Secession was formed in 1897 by a group of Austrian artists who had resigned from the Association of Austrian Artists, housed in the Vienna Künstlerhaus. This movement included painters, sculptors, and architects...
school of Otto Wagner
Otto Wagner
Otto Koloman Wagner was an Austrian architect and urban planner, known for his lasting impact on the appearance of his home town Vienna, to which he contributed many landmarks.-Life:...
with Greek Revival features. His career peaked in 1902-1912 with several Moscow
Moscow
Moscow 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...
buildings including the Morozov Hospital, the Merchant Club (now the Lenkom Theatre
Lenkom Theatre
Lenkom Theatre is the official name of what was once known as the Moscow State Theatre named after Lenin's Komsomol. Designed by Illarion Ivanov-Schitz, it was built in 1907 to house a Merchant's Club, and was home to many theatrical and musical performances...
), Moscow Savings Bank, and the public buildings in Miusskaya Square. He was one of the few architects born in the 1860s who integrated into the Soviet establishment, earning the Order of Lenin
Order of Lenin
The Order of Lenin , named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution, was the highest decoration bestowed by the Soviet Union...
for various resort projects and for redesigning the interiors of the Grand Kremlin Palace
Grand Kremlin Palace
The Grand Kremlin Palace , also translated Great Kremlin Palace, was built from 1837 to 1849 in Moscow, Russia on the site of the estate of the Grand Princes, which had been established in the 14th century on Borovitsky Hill...
in the 1930s.
Education
Ivanov-Schitz graduated from the Saint PetersburgSaint 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...
Institute of Civil Engineers, which he attended from 1883–1888, with a gold medal. After a brief tour of Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, he relocated to Moscow, joining the firm of Max Hoppener and later working for the City of Moscow. Another visit to Europe, in 1893, exposed him to Austrian architect Otto Wagner
Otto Wagner
Otto Koloman Wagner was an Austrian architect and urban planner, known for his lasting impact on the appearance of his home town Vienna, to which he contributed many landmarks.-Life:...
and his circle, who would form the Vienna Secession
Vienna Secession
The Vienna Secession was formed in 1897 by a group of Austrian artists who had resigned from the Association of Austrian Artists, housed in the Vienna Künstlerhaus. This movement included painters, sculptors, and architects...
group in 1897.
Early career
His first realised design, co-signed by Vladimir SherwoodVladimir Vladimirovich Sherwood
Vladimir Vladimirovich Sherwood , was a Russian architect who worked in Moscow in 1895-1914 in Art Nouveau style and modernized classics variant of Russian neoclassical revival that predated modernist architecture of 1920s.-Biography:...
(Jr.), was an 1889 apartment building at 32 Tverskaya Street
Tverskaya Street
Tverskaya Street , known as Gorky Street between 1935 and 1990, is the main and probably best-known radial street of Moscow, Russia. The street runs from the central Manege Square north-west in the direction of Saint Petersburg and terminated at the Garden Ring, giving its name to Tverskoy District...
, Moscow (destroyed). His early works, such as the orphanage in Devichye Pole
Devichye Pole
Devichye Pole is a historical medical campus, built in 1887-1897 in Khamovniki District of Moscow, Russia, to the master plan of Konstantin Bykovski. It is located between the Garden Ring and Novodevichy Convent...
(1893), now housing Embassy of Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
, belong to the tradition of 19th century eclecticism
Eclecticism
Eclecticism is a conceptual approach that does not hold rigidly to a single paradigm or set of assumptions, but instead draws upon multiple theories, styles, or ideas to gain complementary insights into a subject, or applies different theories in particular cases.It can sometimes seem inelegant or...
, and do not stand out among hundreds of similar buildings. Over the first decade of his career, Ivanov-Schitz' style gradually moved towards Greek Revival. Collaboration with 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...
on his railroad projects and public buildings also exposed Ivanov-Schitz to practical applications of Kekushev's Belgian-inspired variety 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"...
.
Mature works
In 1898-1900 he completed his first landmark building, an office block on the corner of Kuznetsky MostKuznetsky Most
Kuznetsky Most is a street in central Moscow, that runs from Bolshaya Dmitrovka Street to Lubyanka Street. The name, literally Blacksmith's Bridge, refers to the 18th century bridge over Neglinnaya River, now running in an underground tunnel, and a nearby foundry and the settlement of its workers...
and Petrovka Street
Petrovka Street
Petrovka Street is a street in Moscow, Russia, that runs north from Kuznetsky Most and Theatral Square up past Strastnoy Boulevard and Petrovsky Boulevard....
. This building, dominated by vertical ribs, was a clear departure from eclecticism. Despite quotations from Greek architecture, it was regarded as unusually modern for its period; professionals called it "A Greek sort of Wagner" (Nachokina, p. 223).
- 1900-1905 Morozov Hospital
- 1902-1903 Moscow Savings Bank
- 1903-1906 Abrikosov's Nursery in Miusskaya Square
- 1903-1906 Vvedensky People's House (destroyed, present-day Zhuravlev Square)
After the revolution of 1905, his buildings become more rationalist
Rationalism (architecture)
The intellectual principles of rationalism are based on architectural theory. Vitruvius had already established in his work De Architectura that architecture is a science that can be comprehended rationally. This formulation was taken up and further developed in the architectural treatises of the...
, yet they clearly belong to the same style:
- 1907-1908 Merchant Club (present-day Lenkom Theatre)
- 1910-1912 Shanyavsky University in Miusskaya Square
- 1910-1914 Courses for the Women in Devichye Pole
Soviet period
Between 1908 and 1928, Ivanov-Schitz was officially employed as the architect of Botkin Hospital in Moscow. He continued active construction work, engaged in various consultancied for the BolshevikBolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
s, and blended well into the new establishment. In 1922-1925, when most architects were unemployed, he had real construction jobs, expanding apartment buildings in Tverskoy Boulevard
Tverskoy Boulevard
Tverskoy 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...
and the Eye Hospital 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 the 1930s, Ivanov-Schitz was a lead architect for the Medical-Sanitary Board (Лечсанупр), a state institution that catered for the Kremlin
Moscow Kremlin
The Moscow Kremlin , sometimes referred to as simply The Kremlin, is a historic fortified complex at the heart of Moscow, overlooking the Moskva River , Saint Basil's Cathedral and Red Square and the Alexander Garden...
elite. He completed various high-profile resorts in Sochi
Sochi
Sochi is a city in Krasnodar Krai, Russia, situated just north of Russia's border with the de facto independent republic of Abkhazia, on the Black Sea coast. Greater Sochi sprawls for along the shores of the Black Sea near the Caucasus Mountains...
and Barvikha
Barvikha
Barvikha is a village in Odintsovsky District of Moscow Oblast, Russia. It is the site of the Barvikha Sanatorium, the health resort of the President of Russia...
and was allowed to rebuild the halls of the Grand Kremlin Palace
Grand Kremlin Palace
The Grand Kremlin Palace , also translated Great Kremlin Palace, was built from 1837 to 1849 in Moscow, Russia on the site of the estate of the Grand Princes, which had been established in the 14th century on Borovitsky Hill...
so it could seat the assemblies of the Supreme Soviet
Supreme Soviet
The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union was the Supreme Soviet in the Soviet Union and the only one with the power to pass constitutional amendments...
. In the 1990s, his alterations were torn down and the Palace was rebuilt to the original plans of Konstantin Thon
Konstantin Thon
Konstantin Andreyevich Thon, also spelled Ton was an official architect of Imperial Russia during the reign of Nicholas I. His major works include the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, the Grand Kremlin Palace and the Kremlin Armoury in Moscow....
(1794–1881).
Illarion Ivanov-Schitz, received the Order of Lenin
Order of Lenin
The Order of Lenin , named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution, was the highest decoration bestowed by the Soviet Union...
. In 1937 he died and was buried with honours at Novodevichy Cemetery
Novodevichy Cemetery
Novodevichy 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....
in Moscow.