Vladimir Aleksandrovich Pokrovsky (March 6 [18], 1871, Moscow — April 30, 1931, Leningrad) was a Russian architect and architectural historian, one of the most consistent representatives of the Neo-Russian style in Russian architecture of the early 20th century. He was an Academician of Architecture (1907), a full member of the Imperial Academy of Arts (1909), and an architect of the Imperial Court (1913). Pokrovsky's connection to Nizhny Novgorod is defined by two major buildings of the 1910s: the building of the State Bank branch and the Old Believer cemetery complex.[1][2]
Education and Early Career
Pokrovsky came from a meshchanin (urban lower-middle-class) family; his father was from the clergy. He graduated from the Moscow Real School (the main course in 1890, and the supplementary classes of the mechanical-technical department in 1892). He entered the Imperial Academy of Arts, where, after the general classes (1896), he studied in the workshop of L. N. Benois (1896–1898) and received a diploma as an artist-architect with the rank of collegiate secretary in the Table of Ranks.[2]
He began his professional career while still a student — from 1894 he worked as an assistant to the architects V. A. Schröter and R. R. Marfeld. After graduating from the Academy, having declined a study-abroad fellowship, he supervised the construction of Benois's designs for the Church of St. George in Gus-Khrustalny and the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Warsaw, and together with Benois restored the St. Sophia Cathedral in Tsarskoye Selo (1904–1905). In those same years he studied the architectural heritage of pre-Petrine Rus, making expeditions to Kiev, towns of Central Russia, and the Russian North, photographically documenting monuments; the photographs were included in volume 1 of the "History of Russian Art" edited by I. E. Grabar (1910).[2]
Work in the Neo-Russian Style
From the very beginning, a national-romantic theme dominated Pokrovsky's creative practice. Among his early realized works are the Church of the Intercession of the Holy Mother of God in Parkhomovka, Kiev Governorate (1903–1907), and the Church of Saints Peter and Paul at the Shlisselburg Gunpowder Works (1903–1907, not preserved). His largest work was the ensemble in Tsarskoye Selo: the Feodorovsky Cathedral (1909–1912), the Officers' Assembly building, and the station of the Special Imperial Railway Branch (both 1911; the station is partially preserved). The Prokhorov chapel-mausoleum at the Novodevichy Convent in Moscow (1911) and the memorial church of St. Alexis on the field of the 1813 Battle of Leipzig in Germany (1911–1913) also brought him wide renown.[2]
His unrealized projects include the Church of St. John the Baptist in Kashin (together with O. R. Munts, 1904), the Armenian Church in Baku (1907), and the Military History Museum in Saint Petersburg (1908).[2]
Buildings in Nizhny Novgorod
In 1911–1913 (according to other sources, 1913–1916), Pokrovsky built the State Bank branch building in Nizhny Novgorod.[1][2] At the same time, the Old Believer cemetery complex was created.[1] Both works are executed in Pokrovsky's characteristic Neo-Russian style, drawing on the forms of medieval Russian architecture. Among his other realized works in the same manner is a loan office in Moscow (1914).[3]
Teaching and Later Years
Pokrovsky was actively engaged in teaching: he taught in the architecture department of the Higher Women's Polytechnic Courses (1906–1924, serving twice as acting dean in 1907–1911), supervised architectural design at the Institute of Civil Engineers in Petersburg–Leningrad (1914–1929), and was assistant to the professor-director of L. N. Benois's studio at the Academy of Arts (1912–1918). In 1915 he headed the courses for military construction technicians under the Central Committee for Military-Technical Assistance. In 1920–1922 he served as a professor at the Don Polytechnic Institute in Novocherkassk.[2]
After 1917, Pokrovsky effectively ceased architectural practice. The exceptions were his participation in organizing the 1st All-Russian Agricultural and Handicraft-Industrial Exhibition of 1923 in Moscow (the "Hunting Economy" pavilion) and an unrealized project for the architectural design of the Volkhov Hydroelectric Power Plant (1917–1926).[2] He died on April 30, 1931, in Leningrad.
Sources
- sky-net-eye.com — Among Pokrovsky's realized works is a loan office in Moscow (1914), executed in the same manner of stylizing the forms of 17th-century Russian architecture. (archive)