EUGENE LANCERAY’S EQUESTRIAN STATUES: THE ROYAL FALCONER OF THE 16TH CENTURY AND KYRGYZ WITH A GOLDEN EAGLE

Abstract

The article systematises scattered data on the reduplication of two chamber sculptures, The Royal Falconer of the 16th Century (1872) and Kyrgyz with a Golden Eagle (1876), by Eugene Lanceray in larger size. The earliest information about Lanceray’s work in the workshops to reduplicate chamber compositions of equestrian hunters in larger size can be found in the memoirs of his contemporaries, N. Shatilov (1916) and A. Benois (1944-1957). Information not previously mentioned in art criticism literature is given about the display of Lanceray’s equestrian statues, cast in bronze at the F. Chopin factory, at three exhibitions: the World Exhibition in Paris, where they were bought by “a noble Parisian” (1878), the All-Russian Art and Industrial Exhibition in Moscow (1882), Exhibition of Birds of Prey, Dogs and Hunting Accessories in St. Petersburg (1885). In the Nedelya newspaper in 1981, writer I. Kamenkovich reported about two sculptures of horse hunters with falcons, cast in bronze in full size and signed on the base: “Лепил Лансере 1876” (“Sculpted by Lanceray 1876”), located in the Baku Absheron sanatorium. Kamenkovich found out that the sculptures came from Leningrad - they were bought from the funds of the former royal palaces. In 2006, English researcher Geoffrey Walden Sudbury described Lanceray’s equestrian statues (in bronze) located in the French city of Menton, indicating the sizes and signatures: on the base of the sculptures - “Лепилъ Е. Лансере” (“Sculpted by Lanceray”), on pedestals - “Lanceray, fauconnier d’Ivan Grosney Don de Moncieu Maurice Malpart 1903” (“Lanceray, Falconer of Ivan the Terrible, gift of Monsieur Maurice Malpart, 1903”) on one, and “Don de Mme Maurice Malpart neé Mercier 1903” (“Gift of Madame Maurice Malpart, born Mercier, 1903”) on another. Historical information suggested that it was Maurice Malpart who was the noble Parisian who had bought the sculptures in 1878 at an exhibition in Paris; then in 1903, the sculptures were donated to Menton. According to the information received by the Azerbaijan National Museum of Art in Baku, there are two equestrian statues (in bronze) that came to the museum in 2000 - Falconry and Falconry (Kyrgyz) with the author’s signature and date on both: “лъпиль лансере 1876”. Archival materials of art historian N. Sobko allow us to clarify the century (16th) in the name of the sculpture of the royal falconer. The equestrian figures of falconers with birds of prey on their arms, made close to life size, are considered as a garden and park version of a monumental and decorative sculpture.