Alexander Nikanorovich Pomerantsev (December 30, 1849, Moscow — November 1918, Petrograd) was a Russian architect, a master of the late phase of eclecticism, as well as an educator and teacher. He was an Academician (1887), professor (1892), and full member (1893) of the Imperial Academy of Arts, and rector of the Higher Art School at the Academy of Arts (from 1894). His best-known building is the Upper Trading Rows on Red Square in Moscow (1889–1893), now GUM. His connection with Nizhny Novgorod is above all as chief architect of the All-Russian Art and Industrial Exhibition of 1896, for which he developed the master plan and the designs of the main pavilions.[1]

Education and early career

Pomerantsev received his education in two stages: in 1874 he graduated from the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (MUZhVZ), where he studied under K. M. Bykovsky, with a Small Silver Medal, after which he entered the architecture department of the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg, where he studied under A. I. Rezanov, D. I. Grimm, and A. I. Krakau.[2] In 1877 he graduated from the Academy with a Grand Gold Medal, 1st class, for his design of a "Railway Station in a Park Near the Capital," and received the right to a pensioner's trip abroad.[3] Before departing, in that same year of 1877, he built the wooden Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in the village of Fedoskino near Moscow — his first independent building.[1]

After a mandatory two-year period of practice in Russia, in 1879 Pomerantsev left on a long trip through Italy, Switzerland, and France; the term of his stay was later extended, and he spent a total of up to the mid-1880s abroad.[4] The main result of the trip was the measured drawings of the Palatine Chapel in Palermo: 172 drawings on 63 sheets and a separate album with 181 drawings of Arabic ornamental painting; this work was published by the Academy of Arts in 1890, and Pomerantsev himself, on his return, received a reward of 150 chervontsy and, in November 1887, the title of Academician of Architecture.[4][1]

Major buildings

Pomerantsev's best-known work was the Upper Trading Rows on Red Square in Moscow, built in 1889–1893 (now GUM): the design won an open competition, and the glazed roofing on a metal frame was developed by the engineer V. G. Shukhov. In the building Pomerantsev embodied his own version of the Russian style, combining the forms of the posad church architecture of Moscow and Yaroslavl with a monumentality reminiscent of Italian Renaissance palazzi.[1]

Other notable buildings include the Cathedral of Saint Alexander Nevsky in Sofia (Bulgaria), built in 1897–1912 in the Neo-Byzantine style to a design based on the plan of the architect I. S. Bogomolov[1]; the N. V. Spiridonov mansion in Saint Petersburg (1895–1896); the building of the Synodal School Council and a school with the Church of Saint Alexander Nevsky in Saint Petersburg (1898–1900); and the Church of Saint Alexander Nevsky in Chelyabinsk (1907).[1] In 1898–1908, together with the engineers L. D. Proskuryakov and P. I. Rashevsky, he developed the architectural solutions for the complex of structures on the Small Ring of the Moscow Circle Railway.[3] Together with V. M. Vasnetsov, he designed the nine-domed Cathedral of Saint Alexander Nevsky on Miusskaya Square in Moscow (built in 1911–1917, left unfinished and dismantled in the 1950s).[1]

The 1896 All-Russian Exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod

In 1895–1896, Pomerantsev served as chief architect of the All-Russian Art and Industrial Exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod. He drew up the general plan of the exhibition and the designs for its main pavilions: the Main, Machinery, Central Asian, and Art pavilions. The Main, Machinery, and Central Asian pavilions used the framework structures of V. G. Shukhov; the Art pavilion was designed in a traditional domed composition.[1][3] Construction of the Art Department, Central Asia Department, and Imperial pavilions to Pomerantsev's designs was supervised by the architect E. F. Virrikh, who held the post of architect of the exhibition's Construction Directorate.[5] None of the exhibition pavilions has survived to the present day.[1]

Teaching Career

Pomerantsev's teaching career spanned several decades. From March 1888 he was a supernumerary adjunct professor in the architecture class of the Academy of Arts; in 1892 he received the title of professor of architecture, in 1893 he became a full member of the Academy, in 1894 head of the Higher Art School attached to it, and in 1899–1900 he served as acting rector of the Academy of Arts.[2][4] In parallel, from 1899 he taught at the MUZhVZ (Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture), and in the late 1880s and early 1890s he gave classes at A. O. Gunst's School of Fine Arts.[1] At the end of 1914 he was elected professor-head of a studio for a term of five years, counting from January 1, 1915.[4] From 1898 he was a member of the Technical and Construction Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and an architect-member of the Synod's administrative directorate and school council; from 1904 he sat on the board of the Society of Architects-Artists.[2]

Pomerantsev died in November 1918 in Petrograd.[5]

Sources

  1. history.ru — POMERANTSEV ALEXANDER NIKANOROVICH — Read articles on the history of the Russian Federation for schoolchildren and students
  2. rah.ru — POMERANTSEV Alexander Nikanorovich (1849–1918)
  3. um.mos.ru — Pomerantsev Alexander Nikanorovich — brief biography, life and work — Learn Moscow
  4. ecology-mef.narod.ru — Moscow Social-Ecological Federation. Architects of Moscow. Pomerantsev Alexander Nikanorovich
  5. yavarda.ru — Pomerantsev Alexander Nikanorovich — Russian architect, graphic artist, and educator
  6. kopilkaurokov.ru — Alexander Nikanorovich Pomerantsev — history, presentations
Materials from the following articles were used (1)

Virrikh Ernest Frantsevich