Boy Playing at Svaika
Statue. 1836
- Gypsum. 208 x 89 x 191
- СК-373
Пост. в 1897 г. из Академии художеств
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Location in museum
The Mikhailovsky Palace
Open the panorama of the hall in the virtual tour
Room 15 - Period Early 19th century
- CategoryGenre Painting
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Games such as svaika have always been popular in Russia. A svaika was a sharp ended nail with a large head that players were supposed to throw into a ring lying on the ground. The use of this subject in an "academic figure" was highly innovative for its time. When Alexander Pushkin saw the statue at an exhibition of the Imperial Academy of Arts, he cried out: "Thank God! At long last Russia has her own school of folk sculpture." The poet dedicated a quatrain to the work. In 1838, the statue was cast in iron and placed before the colonnade of the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoe Selo. Play and Passion in Russian Fine Art. St-Petersburg. 1999. P. 108.