Sergey Merkurov

Sergey Merkurov
A 1981 Soviet stamp commemorating the 100th anniversary of Sergey Merkurov's birth
Born(1881-11-07)7 November 1881
Died8 June 1952(1952-06-08) (aged 70)
Moscow, Soviet Union
NationalityRussian, Soviet
StyleSocialist realism

Sergey Dmitriyevich Merkurov (Russian: Серге́й Дми́триевич Мерку́ров, 7 November [O.S. 26 October] 1881 – 8 June 1952) was a Soviet sculptor-monumentalist of Greek-Armenian descent. He was a People's Artist of the USSR in visual arts, an academic at the Soviet Academy of Arts, and director of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts from 1944 to 1949. Merkurov was considered the greatest Soviet master of post-mortem masks. He was the sculptor of the three biggest monuments of Joseph Stalin in the USSR.

He was the cousin of George Gurdjieff, a mystic and spiritual teacher.