Arthur (Artemy) Aubert

Sculptor, applied artist. Friend and relative of Alexander Benois. Born in the family of Laurent Aubert, a French employee of the Imperial Theatres Company in Moscow (1843). Studied at the Faculty of Medicine of Moscow University (1862–64), Imperial Academy of Arts in St Petersburg (1864–65) and under Antoine-Louis Barye at the École Impériale de Dessin in Paris (1865–70), where he worked in the Louvre and drew animals from life in the Jardin des Plantes. Forced to return to Russia following the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War (1870). Lived with his parents in Moscow (1870) and moved to St Petersburg (1871), where he was awarded a studio at the Imperial Academy of Arts (1871) and won a major silver medal (1872). Sculpted the horse for Mikhail Mikeshin’s equestrian statue of Bohdan Khmelnytsky in Kiev (1888) and the bust of Catherine the Great in front of the Obukhovo Hospital in St Petersburg (1888). Academician of sculpture (1893). Worked at Alexandre Bigot’s ceramics studio in Paris (1894–99). Designed models for the Imperial Porcelain Factory in St Petersburg and Savva Mamontov’s Abramtsevo Ceramics Studio in Moscow (1900s). Contributed to the glass globe on top of the Singer Building (now House of the Book) on Nevsky Prospekt in St Petersburg (1902–04), sculpted the memorial in front of the St Nicholas Naval Cathedral for the sailors of the Emperor Alexander III killed at the Battle of Tsushima (1908). Member of the Union of Russian Artists (1909), founding member of the World of Art (1910). Designed the monument to Colonel Alexei Kellen in Poltava (1909) and the decorative sculptures on the Borodino Bridge in Moscow (1912). Died in Petrograd (1917). Contributed to the exhibitions of the Imperial Academy of Arts (from 1872), XI Society of Travelling Art Exhibitions (1883), World of Art (1900, 1901, 1902, 1903), Exposition Universelle in Paris (1900, silver medal) and a joint retrospective with Eugène Lanceray at the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts in St Petersburg (1886).