23 Facts About Vera Mukhina

Vera Mukhina's ancestors lived in Riga after the Patriotic War of 1812.

The family was well-to-do: in 1937 Vera Mukhina inherited 4 million lats from her grandfather.

Vera Mukhina spent her childhood and youth in Feodosia where her father took her considering his daughter's health.

Vera Mukhina lived there until 1904 when her father died.

On Christmas day of 1912 when Vera Mukhina was staying at her uncle's place in the Smolensk province, she had an accident.

Vera Mukhina had a surgery in hospital in Smolensk but the scars remained on her face for good.

Vera Mukhina later moved to Moscow, where she studied at several private art schools, including those of Konstantin Yuon and Ilya Mashkov.

Vera Mukhina subsequently continued on to Italy to explore the painting and sculpture of the Renaissance period.

Vera Mukhina returned to Moscow in summer 1914 two weeks before World War I began.

In 1927 the sculpture Peasant woman created by Vera Mukhina was awarded the first prize at the exhibition dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution.

Vera Mukhina came to the international attention with the 1937 Worker and Kolkhoz Woman.

In 1945 Vera Mukhina was invited to Riga as an expert to make a conclusion on the monument Freedom which was going to be demolished.

Vera Mukhina came out strongly in defense of the monument although her opinion contradicted that of the party and the monument was preserved.

Vera Mukhina is the creator of two monuments to Maxim Gorky: one of them was installed in 1943 in Moscow at the Belorussky Rail Terminal, the other was installed in 1952 in the city of Gorky.

Vera Mukhina often presented her theories on sculpture, experimented with new materials, and developed a technique of polychromatic sculpture.

Vera Mukhina decorated exhibitions, made industrial drawings, and designed clothes, textiles, porcelain and theatrical costumes for the Vakhtangov Theater in Moscow.

From 1941 to 1952, Vera Mukhina won the Stalin Prize five times, and she was named People's Artist of the USSR in 1943.

Vera Mukhina died in Moscow on 6 October 1953 of angina.

The Museum of Vera Mukhina dedicated to the sculptor's adolescence and work was established in Feodosiya, Ukrainian SSR in 1985.

Vera Mukhina's most celebrated work by far is the giant monument Worker and Kolkhoz Woman, which was the centerpiece of the Soviet pavilion at the 1937 International Exhibition in Paris.

Vera Mukhina's monument crowned the Soviet pavilion designed by the architect Boris Mikhailovich Iofan.

However, Vera Mukhina's concept was altered: the monument was placed on a low pedestal and with its back to the sun and the feeling of flying was gone.

Vera Mukhina commented on it saying that "the monument creeps on the ground".