Sarra Lebedeva facts for kids

Sarra Dmitrievna Lebedeva (December 11, 1892 – March 7, 1967) was a famous Soviet sculptor. She was best known for her amazing portrait sculptures. She also created small statues and figures for porcelain and delft ware.

Sarra Lebedeva's Life

Sarra Lebedeva was born Sara Darmolatova into a wealthy family in Saint Petersburg. Her older sister was the writer Anna Radlova. Sarra was taught at home when she was young.

Early Art Training

She studied art at the School of the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts in her hometown. In 1910, she joined Mikhail Bernshtein's school. Two years later, she became a sculptor, learning from Leonid Sherwood until 1914.

During this time, Sarra traveled to France, Germany, Austria, and Italy. These trips helped her discover the art of the Italian Renaissance. She especially loved the work of Donatello. In 1914, she designed masks and reliefs for the Yusupov Palace. She worked with the sculptor Vasili Kuznetsov. After this, she focused mostly on portraits and figures. In 1915, she married the painter Vladimir Lebedev.

After the Russian Revolution

After the Russian Revolution, Sarra Lebedeva taught at the Free Art Studios in Petrograd from 1918 to 1920. There, she met many other artists like Vladimir Tatlin and Kazimir Malevich. She also met famous writers and thinkers such as Maxim Gorky and Vladimir Mayakovsky.

She created art for public messages, like a model for a silver ruble coin in 1918. She also made models for monuments to important historical figures. From 1919 to 1920, she taught at the Stieglitz Institute. In the 1920s, she started working with ceramics and designing for the theater.

Becoming a Portrait Sculptor

Sarra moved to Moscow. In 1925, she visited London. Her career as a portrait sculptor truly began that same year with a sculpture of Felix Dzerzhinsky. In 1928, she visited Paris and Berlin. She also showed her art at the Venice Biennale in 1928 and again in 1932.

From 1934 to 1936, she made ceramic items for the Konakovsky Factory. She also continued to create many portrait sculptures. These included famous people like the pilot Valery Chkalov. Her sculpture of Chkalov in the Tretyakov Gallery is very lively and full of energy. She also made sculptures of factory workers.

Art Style and Influences

Sarra Lebedeva was first influenced by artists like Donatello, Cranach, and Rembrandt. Her early works showed she wasn't very aware of new art styles at the time. She was also interested in Impressionism, and you can see touches of this style in her art throughout her career.

Her husband, Vladimir Lebedev, introduced her to the works of Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, and Henri Matisse. Their art greatly influenced her later on. Sarra liked to sculpt using only her fingertips, not her whole hand. Her favorite material to work with was bronze.

Recognition and Legacy

In 1920, Sarra Lebedeva joined the Society of Russian Sculptors. She had her own art show at the State Museum of New Western Art in Moscow in 1941. In 1945, she was named an Honored Artist of the RSFSR. In 1958, she became a member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR.

She continued to show her art in Moscow and Leningrad. She became a close friend of Vladimir Tatlin. In the 1960s, she gave a large collection of his papers and artwork to the Central State Archive of Art and Literature.

Sarra Lebedeva passed away in Moscow. Special art shows were held to remember her at the Tretyakov Gallery and the State Russian Museum. She is buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.

Many of her works are held by the Russian Museum and the State Tretyakov Gallery. She also created the profile image of her lifelong friend, the writer Boris Pasternak, which is on his grave marker at Peredelkino.

There is even a crater on the planet Venus named after her!