World Champion Speed Skater Maria Isakova
Yanson - Manizer, Elena A.
1890 - 1971
World Champion Speed Skater Maria Isakova
Metal painted black
24 x 37 x 20
1955
Signed and inscribed on base
PROVENANCE:
Private Collection, St Petersburg
LITERATURE:
Catalogue of Tretyakov Gallery, No. 1781, Inv. No. 27876, Yelena Yanson-Manizer, 1890 - 1971, 'M.G. Isakova, Merited Master of Sport, and Three times skating champion, 1949,' Illust. p. 444.
Elena Yanson-Manizer is best known for her depictions of athletes and ballet dancers. In this well-known depiction of the speed skating champion Maria Isakova Yanson-Manizer captures the grace and power of this famous Soviet Athlete. There is a similar sized version of this sculpture in the permanent collection of the Russian Museum that is dated by the museum to 1949. Our version is clearly dated 1955. There is a larger version in bronze in the Tretyakov gallery that is also dated 1949. As with most Soviet Sculpture there were no records kept of how many were cast.
The sculpture seen from the front
Isakova with her medals
A few of this sculpture of Isakova are in bronze but most, such as our one, are cast in a unspecified metal. Having sculptures cast in Soviet times was expensive and difficult and very few of each sculpture were made. Often they were cast at the gun factory outside Moscow and made from whatever metal they were using for the guns.
Base of sculpture with signature, date and title
Maria G. Isakov (1918, Vyatka - 2011, Moscow) - Soviet athlete-skater, three-time world champion in the classic all-round (1948-1950), champion of the USSR (1945-1949, 1951), the world record holder in the 1500 meters (2: 29.5). Honored Master of Sports of the USSR (1946). The first Soviet world champion in speed skating (until 1948 Soviet konkobezhki not participated in this event at the world championships). Maria Isakov displayed on one of the bas station "Dinamo" Moscow Metro (sculptor E.A.Yanson-Manizer).
Janson Manizer Elena (1890, St. Petersburg - 1971, Moscow)
Soviet painter and sculptor.
She studied at the architectural department of the Polytechnic Institute (1914), and not graduating, moved to the Architecture Faculty of Arts (1917) in St. Petersburg. Combine study with work draftswomen, participated in archaeological expeditions (Bakhchisarai, Kerch, Kherson). She worked as an assistant theater decorator (since 1918) in the First State Marionette Theatre, where she began to sculpt and carve wooden statues of dolls. Resuming his studies (1921), moved to the workshop of sculpture faculty Manizer M. (1922), later became his wife (1926). AHRR member (since 1925). Participated in exhibitions (since 1926).
Created portraits, monumental and decorative reliefs, medals, easel composition. Copyright statuettes "Start in the water", "basketball player", "Yadrotolkatel" (1926), which in the 1930s. were enlarged, cast in bronze and installed in recreation parks in Moscow and Leningrad. Participated in the design of the metro station "Dinamo", created a 24 story circular porcelain reliefs devoted to different types of physical activity and sport.Performed statues and sculptural portraits of the triple world champion in speed skating and MG Isakova Athlete AV CHUDIN. Favorite topic - Preview dance. Created a series (1934-1937) of seven sculptures on the theme of "Swan Lake", "The Fountain of Bakhchisarai", "Romeo and Juliet", "Egyptian Nights", etc.
