RUSSIAN FIGURINE 'PIONEER WITH A TAMBOURINE'

RARE PORCELAIN FIGURINE 'PIONEER WITH A DRUM', probably circa 1926, with the mark of the Lomonosov Porcelain Factory, Leningrad, after a Soviet model by Maria Strakhovskaya (1888–1962), depicts a young boy standing barefoot with his eyes raised to the sky, wearing a white shirt, a red neckerchief, and blue shorts, playing a yellow drum suspended from a strap on his left shoulder, standing on a rocky base adorned with green foliage monograms, height 15.5 cm, on a base with imprints of a hammer, sickle, and gear wheel, stamped with the Cyrillic initials 'IK' (Ivan Kuznetsov) of the moulder, and a red stamp 'Made in Russia U.S.S.R.' (minor restoration to the left leg).

REFERENCES: Maria Mikhailovna Strakhovskaya (1888–1962) studied at the Society for the Encouragement of Artists (1907–1914) and was a member of artistic societies, including the Society of Russian Sculptors and Monolith. This figurine is part of a remarkable series of 'Pioneer' figurines commissioned by the Lomonosov Factory from Strakhovskaya in the mid-1920s. This series includes the figurines 'Pioneer Walking with a Drum', 'Pioneer with Fanfares', 'Pioneer in the "Always Ready" Pose with a Drum at His Feet', 'Pioneer with a Hammer', and 'Pioneer with a Flag'. Sculptor Ivan Kuznetsov worked at the Imperial Porcelain Factory from 1910 and continued working there after the 1917 revolution. Figurines produced by the factory, especially in the early 1920s, were accessible to a limited number of people, as they were luxury items produced in small quantities. A similar figurine is illustrated in the book The State Porcelain Factory, 1904–1944 by T.N. Nosovich and I.P. Popova (2005), p. 611. Another was featured in the exhibition 'Children of the Soviet State' at the State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, from September to November 2017, see the catalogue (2017), p. 87, no. 102. See also a figurine presented at the current exhibition 'Voice of the Time. Soviet Porcelain: Art and Propaganda' at the State Hermitage Museum since December 2017, inv. no. MF 6173, see the catalogue (2017), p. 134, no. 56. Other porcelain figurines after models by Maria Strakhovskaya, including 'Young Blacksmith' and 'Young Robber', were sold at Sotheby’s auction in New York on April 12, 2011, lot 172.