LANCERAY Evgeny Alexandrovich

August 12, 1848 (Morshansk, Tambov province) — March 23, 1886 (Neskuchnoye village, Kursk province)

Sculptor

Evgeny Lanceray was born to family of railway engineer. In 1866–1870 he studied at the faculty of law in St. Petersburg University and graduated from the University with academic degree of Candidate of Law. During 4 years Lanceray worked at the Ministry of Finance, but later he left the service for sculpture, which he had been studying since student years.

Lanceray did not get any art education; he studied modelling on his own and attended sculpture workshops, in particular the studio of the academician of the Imperial Academy of Arts N. I. Lieberich. Lanceray worked a lot from nature. In 1867 and 1876 the artist made several trips to Paris, where he attended museums and studied art of bronze casting. In 1869 Lanceray was conferred title of class artist of the 2nd degree by the Imperial Academy of Arts (IAKh) for his painting Troika with two passengers, dog and coachman and wax composition Ruslan and Ludmila; in 1872 he conferred title of class artist of the 1st degree for his statuettes Tsar’s falconer. The 17th century, Young Line Cossack, Herdsboy and Abrek. In 1874 he became honoured member of the IAKh. Lanceray was married to daughter of the famous architect N. L. Benois — Ekaterina. Evgeny Lanceray is father of the artists E. E. Lanceray and Z. E. Serebryakova, architect N. E. Lanceray.

Works by Lanceray were exhibited in the exhibitions of the Academy of Fine Arts (1869–1874), international art exhibitions in London (1872), Philadelphia (1876), Paris (1878), at Russian department of the World exhibition in Vienna (1873) and in Antwerp (1885). The artist took part in the exhibitions of Moscow Society of Art Lovers.

Every year Lanceray made art trips through Central and South Russia, Ukraine, the Caucasus, Bashkiria, Kirghizia and the Crimea. In 1883 he travelled to Algeria. In 1886 the common exhibition of works by Evgeny Lanceray and A. L. Ober took place in the halls of the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts in St. Petersburg.

In 1878, because of material problems, Lanceray sold his artistic property rights for 17 works to the owner of bronze foundry F. Chopin. Later these rights of reproduction of Lanceray’s works were repeatedly sold to other factory owners.

Retrospective exhibitions of the artist, dedicated to the 100th and 150th anniversaries of his birth, were held in 1949 and in 1998 in the State Tretyakov Gallery.

Evgeny Lanceray is an outstanding Russian sculptor of the second half of the 20th century, who left great heritage. He is known first of all as a master of chamber and cabinet sculpture. The most favourite subjects of Lanceray were scenes of hunting, horse race, equestrian statuettes, troikas and horses. During the life of the artist, his works were in popular demand for interior design, but not for collecting.

Lanceray followed academic traditions in sculpture; he strived for complete compositions of his sculptures, took great attention to details and quality of the casts.  As a rule Lanceray created only wax or plaster forms, without being involved in process of bronze cast. The artist’s sculptures were mass-produced. Works by Lanceray were oriented to mass production and were cast in many copies in bronze-casting foundries of F. Chopin, N. Shtange, A. Moran, K. Berto and in the iron foundries of Ural (there are indications of trademarks on the sculptures). It being known that the production lasted during many years after the death of the artist. There is even contemporary casts from the artist’s forms. At the same time Evgeny Lanceray alongside with P. P. Trubetskoy is one of the most appreciated Russian sculptors nowadays at antique market.

Works by Evgeny Lansere are in many private and museum collections, including the State Tretyakov Gallery, the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Kiev Museum of Russian Art and others.