Portrait of Paolo Troubetzkoy by Valentin SerovPortrait of Troubetzkoy, etching, by Anders Zorn, 1909Portion of St. Louis Post-Dispatch page of March 17, 1912, shows reporter Marguerite Martyn, in the center, making sketches for her article on Troubetzkoy and his wife, Elin Sundström (drawing right and photo center). The layout also includes a caricature that Troubetzkoy did of Sundström and himself, as well as Troubetzkoy quotations that Martyn noted.
Prince Paolo Petrovich Troubetzkoy (also known as PavelorPaul; Russian: Павел Петрович Трубецкой, romanized: Pavel Petrovich Trubetskoy; Intra, Italy, 15 February 1866 — Pallanza, 12 February 1938) was an Italian sculptor of Russian origin who was described by George Bernard Shaw as "the most astonishing sculptor of modern times".[1][2] By birth, he was a member of the ancient House of Trubetskoy.
Troubetzkoy was a vegetarian. His vegetarian friend George Bernard Shaw remarked: “Troubetzkoy is a gigantic and terrifying humanitarian who can do anything with an animal except eat it”.[1][7]
Alexandra Tolstoy, daughter of the great novelist Leo Tolstoy wrote in her father's biography: "From time to time he posed – a tiring obligation – for painters and sculptors: for Repin, Pasternak who did a study of the family, Aronson, and Paolo Troubetzkoy. Troubetzkoy, a Russian educated in Italy, did some splendid little statues of Tolstoy – one of him on horseback. Father was very fond of him. A sweet and childlike person in addition to his great gifts, he read practically nothing, spoke little, all his life was wrapped up in sculpture. As a convinced vegetarian he would not eat meat but cried: "Je ne mange pas de cadavre!" if anyone offered him some. In his studio in St. Petersburg there was a whole zoo: a bear, a fox, a horse, and a vegetarian wolf.[8]
Troubetzkoy once said “As I cannot kill I cannot authorize others to kill. Do you see? If you are buying from a butcher you are authorizing him to kill — kill helpless, dumb creatures, which neither I nor you could kill ourselves.”[9]
Troubetzkoy was married twice. His first marriage was to a Swedish woman, Elin Sundström (1883–1927) and his second marriage was to a British woman named Muriel Marie Boddam. His son Pierre died at the age of 2+1⁄2 years[10] - he sculpted in the same year the sculpture "Maternity".[clarification needed]
Paolo Troubetzkoy, Portrait of Mrs. Troubetzkoy, photo by David Finn, David Finn Archive, Department of Image Collections, National Gallery of Art Library, Washington, DC
Paolo Troubetzkoy, Memorial to Italian Soldiers of WWI, 1923, photo by David Finn, David Finn Archive, Department of Image Collections, National Gallery of Art Library, Washington, DC
The Troubetzkoy Archive Project provides a central database for the works of Paul Troubetzkoy.[11] It was created by James Drake on behalf of the Museo del PaesaggioinVerbania, where more than 300 Troubetzkoy's plaster works are preserved.[12][13]
^ abG.B. Shaw, Preface to the catalogue of an exhibition of sculpture by Troubetzkoy at the P. & D. Colnaghi Galleries, London, 1931, in The Complete Prefaces: 1930-1950 (Allen Lane, 1997), pp. 97-98.
