Mitrofan Rukavishnikov

Founder of one of the most prominent dynasties of Russian sculptors, Mitrofan Rukavishnikov was born on May 24 1887 in Nizhny Novgorod, into the family of Sergei (Mikhailovich) Rukavishnikov, son of the well-known Nizhny Novgorod merchant Mikhail (Grigorievich) Rukavishnikov. In 1901, at the age of 14, Mitrofan enrolled in the Emperor Alexander II Nizhegorodsky Institute for Noblemen’s Children, where he studied for six years, until 1907. After graduation the young man was still undecided about his future. He explained in his autobiography: “In the years of my initial awakening to the realities of life, in the years of my youth, in my school years, when I came to love all forms of art and especially the synthesizing forms, I, anticipating the colossus of art as a whole, began to consider my first attempts at creation as amateurish and decided to choose the path of ‘hard’ science.”