Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was incredibly popular with his contemporaries. Numerous portraits and photographs of the composer were created. However, the composer’s first sculpture was only created shortly before his death, in the winter of 1892–1893. The author of the sculpture was Ilya Yakovlevich Ginzburg, academician of the Imperial Academy of Arts. The sculptor was closely connected to the music and cultural world of St. Petersburg.
In December 1892, Tchaikovsky arrived in Moscow for the premieres of Iolanta and The Nutcracker at the Mariinsky Theater. The day before, he wrote to Ginzburg: “My dear, sweet, kind Ilya Yakovlevich! It truly is impossible for me to visit you right now, and even if I could, you would find it unbearable to look at such a tired and mentally exhausted person! I will be with you when my torments are over, and I can even come twice, if you like. In any case, I will be there Tuesday the 8th, at 10 o”clock. P. Tchaikovsky’. The letter was published in Tchaikovsky’s correspondence in 1979.
The visit itself took place on December 8, 1892. Pyotr was standing at a music table and working.
The sculpture was donated to P. I. Tchaikovsky House-Museum by the author himself, in 1925. There is a corresponding note in the diaries of Nikolai Timofeevich Zhegin, the first director of the House-Museum: “I hurried to the Academy of Arts to see Ginzburg, who was waiting for me… Ginzburg, a very short man in a greasy jacket, with a dirty fez on his head, received me very kindly. He showed me his only remaining figurine of P[yotr] I[lyich]. It looked somewhat strange because the desk that P[yotr] I[lyich] stands at does not have any legs, and the top of the desk he leans against is hanging in the air, but Ilya Yakovlevich said adding the legs would be expensive. I decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth and, of course, agreed to take it as it was, and he promised to package it up by Monday. He then unwrapped a package and revealed a portrait of P[yotr] I[lyich] with his autograph, which he wanted to donate to the museum. I was moved by his kindness. I asked him to sign a photograph I had brought from Klin, where he is making the sculpture of P[yotr] I[Ilyich]”.
In December 1892, Tchaikovsky arrived in Moscow for the premieres of Iolanta and The Nutcracker at the Mariinsky Theater. The day before, he wrote to Ginzburg: “My dear, sweet, kind Ilya Yakovlevich! It truly is impossible for me to visit you right now, and even if I could, you would find it unbearable to look at such a tired and mentally exhausted person! I will be with you when my torments are over, and I can even come twice, if you like. In any case, I will be there Tuesday the 8th, at 10 o”clock. P. Tchaikovsky’. The letter was published in Tchaikovsky’s correspondence in 1979.
The visit itself took place on December 8, 1892. Pyotr was standing at a music table and working.
The sculpture was donated to P. I. Tchaikovsky House-Museum by the author himself, in 1925. There is a corresponding note in the diaries of Nikolai Timofeevich Zhegin, the first director of the House-Museum: “I hurried to the Academy of Arts to see Ginzburg, who was waiting for me… Ginzburg, a very short man in a greasy jacket, with a dirty fez on his head, received me very kindly. He showed me his only remaining figurine of P[yotr] I[lyich]. It looked somewhat strange because the desk that P[yotr] I[lyich] stands at does not have any legs, and the top of the desk he leans against is hanging in the air, but Ilya Yakovlevich said adding the legs would be expensive. I decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth and, of course, agreed to take it as it was, and he promised to package it up by Monday. He then unwrapped a package and revealed a portrait of P[yotr] I[lyich] with his autograph, which he wanted to donate to the museum. I was moved by his kindness. I asked him to sign a photograph I had brought from Klin, where he is making the sculpture of P[yotr] I[Ilyich]”.
