Leonid Eidlin

Sculptor. Born in Petrograd (1918) in the family of Jewish violinist Yuly Eidlin (1896–1958) and his wife Polina (1896–1980). Studied at the preparatory courses of the Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (1935–37) and under Alexander Matveyev and Gavriil Schultz at the Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in Leningrad (1937–47). Member of the Union of Artists (1947). Designed such war memorials as the bronze statues of Alexander Matrosov in Matrosov (formerly Ushakov and now Lenin) Park in Ufa (1951), Moscow District Victory Park in Leningrad (1951) and Leninallee (now Merseburger Straße) in Halle (Saale) in East Germany (1971) and the cabin boy on Baltic Cabin Boys Square on Vasilyevsky Island in St Petersburg (1999). Sculpted the bronze busts of Vasily Surikov in the Rumyantsev Gardens on University Embankment in St Petersburg (1951) and on Surikov Square on Lenin Street in Krasnoyarsk (1954). Designed the granite commemorative plaque to Nikolai Gogol at 17 Gogol (now Malaya Morskaya) Street in Leningrad (1963) and the bronze statue of Nikolai Nekrasov at the corner of Nekrasov Street and Greek Prospekt in Leningrad (1971). Decorated the exterior of the Pulkovo Observatory (1953–55) and sculpted portraits of Vladimir Lenin (1955, 1960, 1967, 1968, 1980), Yakov Sverdlov (1969), Vasily Chapayev (1972) and Vladimir Antonov-Ovseyenko (1975). Created images of Leningrad factory workers (1964–81) and addressed the theme of labour in Young Worker (1967), Smelter (1980) and Young Blacksmith (1985). Sculpted portraits of Daniil Granin (1964), Maria Slavutskaya (1964), Abram Joffe (1980), Alexander Pushkin (1993) and Mstislav Rostropovich (1999). Died in St Petersburg and buried in the Jewish Cemetery at 66a Alexandrovskoe Farm Prospekt in Nevsky District (2001). Contributed to exhibitions (from 1947). Contributed to the Exhibition of Diploma Works of Graduates of the Academy of Arts of the USSR in the Raphael and Titian Rooms of the Hermitage Museum in Leningrad (1947), Exhibition of Works by Leningrad Artists at the Russian Museum in Leningrad (1950), Exhibition of Works by Leningrad Artists at the Russian Museum in Leningrad (1951), All-Union Art Exhibition at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow (1951–52), Spring Exhibition of Works by Leningrad Artists at the Union of Artists in Leningrad (1956), Plastik und Blumen at the Treptower Park in East Berlin (1969), Brüderlich verbunden at the Albertinum in Dresden (1975), Russian Sculpture in Wood: XX Century at the Russian Museum in St Petersburg (2001), Petersburg 2001 at the Manège Central Exhibition Hall in St Petersburg (2001), Times of Change: Art in the Soviet Union (1960–85) at the Russian Museum in St Petersburg (2006) and a one-man show at the Russian Museum in St Petersburg (1993).