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Fedor Ivanovich Shubin, 1740-1805, was a
native of the same village where Lomonosov was born, up north in the
Arkhangelsk region on the shores of the White Sea. His father was a
peasant-fisherman who somehow became literate and taught both Lomonosov and his
son to read and write. Even as a young boy Shubin showed interest in the little
sculptures that peasants made of fish-bones, a handicraft popular in the area.
For a while he worked for a local craftsman, and then with Lomonosov's help
entered the Academy of Art in Saint Petersburg, where Gillet supervised his
education. Five years later Shubin graduated with honors and was sent to Paris
to see western art at its source and complete his studies. In Paris he even
heard a few lectures by Diderot, in which the French philosopher urged realism
in art and the need for not to extol the beautiful side of life. The young
Russian sculptor, as we shall see, embraced entirely the views of the
moralizing Frenchman. After a visit to London and a stay in Italy, Shubin
returned to Saint Petersburg where he worked hard and made many busts of
prominent men, who at that time were the only ones who could afford to take an
interest in sculpture. It appears, that Diderot, when he visited Saint
Petersburg, saw some of Shubin's sculptures and had few nice words for the
Russian artist. All this helped Shubin enter the Academy as a professor and
gain fame. Shubin's major works include the statue of Catherine II, busts of
Paul I, field marshals Potemkin and Rumiantsev, count Sheremetiev, Golitsin,
Lomonosov and several others. They are all quite simple, scarcely decorated and
very realistic, showing Shubin's eagerness primarily to express the character
of the people he sculpted. His busts are realistic "Parsuan"
(portraits) in marble and as such they have not only artistic but also a
historic value, as records of what these persons looked like. Shubin is
considered Russia's first sculptor in the full sense of the word, and one of
her best
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