The collection of the Museum of Theater and Music houses a small bronze statue. It was created by Serafim Sudbinin who maintained close connections with the theatrical world throughout his entire life. Sudbinin began his career as an actor. In the 1890s, he worked at provincial theaters, and in May 1898, he joined the first troupe of the Moscow Art Theater. Serafim Sudbinin performed in the theater’s first play “Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich” and participated in almost all early productions. He was even an understudy for Konstantin Stanislavsky himself in such plays as Chekhov’s “Three Sisters” and Gorky’s “The Lower Depths”.

Alongside his career as a theater actor, Sudbinin practiced photography, drawing, and molding. His first famous work as a sculptor was this statue of Stanislavsky as doctor Stockmann from “An Enemy of the People” by Henrik Ibsen. Sudbinin gave this statue as a souvenir to Maxim Gorky who kept it in his study.

The statue is a full-length portrait of Stanislavsky. The actor stands slightly hunching and bending forwards. His right arm is bent at the elbow, while his left arm is down to his side. Sudbinin chose to portray Stanislavsky as this character on purpose because doctor Stockmann is one of the most purely good characters in Ibsen’s plays.

A few years after creating this statue, Sudbinin quit acting and decided to dedicate all his time to sculpture. Thanks to the financial support from the philanthropist Savva Morozov, Sudbinin was able to study in Paris. One of his teachers and mentors was the famous French sculptor Auguste Rodin.

In his statues, Serafim Sudbinin often addressed the topics of music and theater. In 1913, the Imperial Porcelain Factory in Saint Petersburg commissioned him to create a series of statues with the participants of the “Russian Seasons” festival. His models included the ballerinas Anna Pavlova and Tamara Karsavina, and the singers Feodor Chaliapin and Leonid Sobinov.

After the October Revolution, Sudbinin left Soviet Russia for Paris. Many of his works were purchased by the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris and the National Ceramics Museum in Sèvres. In Russia, Sudbinin’s art is displayed in the Russian Museum, the State Tretyakov Gallery, the Bakhrushin Theater Museum and other major art collections.