The Petin Sculpture Museum can be called a family museum. Tell us about the head of the family, the sculptor Gavriil Alekseevich Petin. What was he like?
Gavriil Alekseevich Petin came from a poor village family. His father died early, and the boy had to start working at the age of ten. At first he was a cobbler's assistant, and later he learned trades such as bricklaying and concrete work. Petin was not a professional sculptor or artist; he had an innate sense of volume. He acquired basic knowledge in his youth while taking part in the renovation of the Pobeda cinema. There he met an educated Leningrad sculptor who noticed Gavryusha’s interest (Gavriil Alekseevich was affectionately called Gavryusha) and began teaching him sculpture, later assigning him homework. Petin's eldest daughter Nadezhda recalled: “When I was little, I would run around, come home from the street and fall asleep. Father would wait until everyone at home fell asleep, and right at the dining table he would start modeling.” And so he gradually got into it.
He met his wife Masha in Topolya Park. Three days after they met he went to her parents and gave them a choice: either they bless the marriage, or he would simply elope with their daughter. That's how they began living together. He treated his wife very tenderly, calling her Marusen'ka and Mashen'ka. When Gavriil Alekseevich began traveling to Moscow to work at the All-Union House of Folk Art, he wrote to her every day and sent gifts to the children. He could not stay away from his family for long; he was a caring husband and father, an exemplary family man.
In the early 1940s the state allocated Petin a plot in the city center at 59 Komsomolskaya Street. That’s how their family house appeared, to which he moved the family from a communal apartment at 58 Sovetskaya Street. Gavriil Alekseevich was not drafted to the front — he had an exemption. First, because he was a well-known sculptor in the city and region, and second, because he worked as a propmaker for the Leningrad Maly Theatre of Opera and Ballet evacuated to Orenburg. Petin created decorations and maintained them, making wondrous “dishes” out of papier-mâché that the neighborhood children would run to see.
Unfortunately, the sculptor died young under tragic circumstances. He was only 38. Gavriil Alekseevich and his wife were at a concert dedicated to another anniversary of the October Revolution. Their daughters — fifteen-year-old Nadezhda and eight-year-old Ideya — stayed under the care of their grandmother, a distant relative. After the girls fell asleep, she left, hoping their parents would return soon. Midway through the concert, despite his wife's pleas to stay, Petin suddenly decided to go home. Approaching the house, he saw an open window. A thief, recently released from prison under amnesty and intent on making some money, had entered the house. He had learned that Petin had received a generous award the day before for a sculptural composition for the town of Buzuluk. But he didn't know that Petin never kept money at home... Gavriil Alekseevich was shot and later died in hospital. His widow, Maria Petrovna, never remarried and lived in the family house until her death, renting rooms to students.
Gavriil Alekseevich Petin
How did Petin's daughters' lives turn out?
Their father dreamed that the elder daughter Nadya would become an architect and the younger Ideya a musician. Ideya Gavrilovna followed that path: she finished school, music college, then the Saratov Conservatory, and after graduation was assigned to Veliky Novgorod, where she spent her life teaching music at the Novgorod Music College.
At their father's grave Nadya vowed she would become a sculptor and continue his work. She decided to apply to the I.E. Repin Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in Leningrad. A family acquaintance who was already studying at Repin prepared her for admission. Although Nadya had helped her father look after the city's monuments since childhood, knew how to mix and model clay, she lacked certain theoretical knowledge, making admission difficult. But she got in. At first she had to catch up with classmates who had attended art schools and already had practiced skills. Nadya modeled day and night and eventually overtook them — her diploma work was acquired by the Leningrad Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism, which became recognition of her talent, skill and professionalism.
Petin was a master of monumental works and created sculptures of the heroes of his time: Lenin, Stalin, Chkalov, Voroshilov, sometimes exceeding three meters in height. Nadya, however, worked more in small forms — sculptural portraits of people from her personal circle: artists, art historians, performers. She also produced many generalized images, such as “Kazakh Boy,” “Female Portrait,” “Mother and Child,” and others. Her small forms often reflect scenes observed in life.
Nadezhda Gavrilovna Petina
Tell us how and when the Petin Museum was founded?
The museum opened in November 2021. The museum's staff is small — just five people. Before that, it housed a memorial workshop. The owner was Gavriil Alekseevich’s eldest daughter, Nadezhda, who worked in the workshop until she was 85. She had intended to sell the house, but ultimately made the wise decision to donate it to the city and to the Orenburg Regional Museum of Fine Arts so as to permanently inscribe her family's name into Orenburg's history. This is a unique case not only for our city but for the country as a whole, when an artist establishes a family museum during their lifetime.
The museum consists of two parts. Of the 100 m², half is occupied by the workshop and the other 50 m² are the living rooms, conveying the atmosphere of the 1940s–60s. Many objects and interior items were collected by the staff of the Museum of Fine Arts: an iron bed, a tapestry rug, lace pillowcases, curtains, a record player, a radio receiver…
Authentic interior of the Petin Sculpture Museum
What exhibits are presented in the permanent exhibition?
The permanent exhibition is preserved in the residential part of the house. Last year an exhibition was planned for Nadezhda Gavrilovna’s 90th anniversary. She herself selected the works and arranged them in the exhibition space. Unfortunately, she passed away just ten days before the opening. We left those works exactly as she had wanted.
The Pushkin theme played a special role in Nadezhda Gavrilovna's work. The permanent exhibition features three works dedicated to Pushkin: “Pushkin and the Nanny,” “I Remember a Marvelous Moment…,” and one of the first sketches for the model of the Pushkin and Dahl monument. The Pushkin and Dahl monument stands in the very center of Orenburg, in the square on Sovetskaya Street. The path from idea to realization of this sculptural composition took Nadezhda Gavrilovna about twenty years. She travelled extensively to Pushkin-related places, studied the poet’s biography and character to convey the image of the great poet as accurately as possible. It was for this monument that she was nominated for the title of Honorary Citizen of Orenburg.
In total, 13 works are presented in the permanent exhibition, including “Portrait of Father,” “Self-Portrait,” “Breeze,” “Portrait of a Girl,” “Mezzo-Soprano — People's Artist of the USSR L. P. Filatova,” “Pushkin and Dahl,” and “Motherhood.” Petina’s works are made from a variety of materials: bronze, marble, wood, chamotte, aluminum, copper. Accordingly, these works were created using different techniques: casting, modeling, carving… Her main interest was experimenting with form and texture.
What exhibitions take place at the Petin Sculpture Museum?
We decided not to limit ourselves solely to the Petins’ work and to show visitors works by other sculptors. This year we opened with an exhibition by Orenburg sculptor Alexander Yefimovich Sukmanov, who is also the author of many city sculptures. Currently on display is an exhibition by Nadezhda Gavrilovna titled “A Woman’s Lot.” It features a variety of sculptural portraits, small forms, and expressions of different emotional states. The exhibition includes works such as “Virgin Lands Woman,” “Cook,” “Soldier Woman,” “Friends,” and “Tree of Life.” We see images of women from infancy to deep old age, women of different professions and social statuses — both rural country girls and urban intelligentsia. There is, of course, a piece dedicated to Orenburg’s down-coat makers (puhovnitsy). The transmission of traditions is another important theme in Nadezhda Gavrilovna Petina’s work. The pieces are made from different materials, and the choice of material is directly linked to the simplicity or complexity of the image. Sculptures of village girls are carved from wood, tanned bodies on the beach are made from red chamotte. More refined images, such as “Veronika,” where the model appears in the guise of the biblical Eve, shimmer in golden bronze.
In September we also plan to open an exhibition titled “Pushkin. The Petins. Orenburg,” timed to the anniversary of A. S. Pushkin’s visit to Orenburg. And toward the end of the year we intend to show retro cotton-wool (vat) toys. Since our interior conveys the atmosphere of the mid-20th century, when real Christmas trees were often decorated with cotton-wool toys, we will display items by one of the Orenburg craftswomen. It will be a kind of magical New Year’s tale.
The Petin Sculpture Museum at 59 Komsomolskaya
What cultural and educational activities are held at the museum?
We use the workshop not only as an exhibition space but also as a place for master classes. Nadezhda Gavrilovna herself wanted the house and workshop to be filled with people’s voices and children’s laughter. While she was still alive she approved the idea of holding master classes in modeling and ceramic painting. We have a wonderful ceramic artist, Marina Vasilievna Sylkina, who conducts the classes. We teach the basics of pottery, hand modeling, and painting on ceramic blanks.
Young people and adults come to us. We often go out with master classes to kindergartens, schools, and corporate events. In our cozy museum courtyard we hold various events during the warm season. For example, for this year’s “Night of Museums” we hosted a market of Orenburg artists and a concert.
Painting a Scythian panther — a popular museum master class
What plans does the museum have for the future?
Increasing the museum's popularity is one of our main goals. We have many interesting artists and sculptors. We want Orenburg residents to know the history of their city, the history of each city monument, to connect with the beautiful, and to visit us more often. It is for these purposes that we implement our exhibition projects.
Nadezhda Gavrilovna was a versatile person, interested in music, literature, painting and sculpture. Therefore we are open to creative people and welcome meetings with artists, writers, master classes and lectures. At the “Night of Arts” young poets and prose writers came and read their works — it was great and interesting. We need to expand and keep pace with the times. Let people come, learn something new, get pleasure and spend their free time well. We will be very glad!
Interviewed by Elizaveta Delorosa
