In the early 20th century, sculptor Pavel Kamensky made more than 140 porcelain figurines about 30 cm high. All of them were hand-painted with glaze and dressed in the national costumes of the peoples living on the territory of the Russian Empire. Some were paired, featuring both male and female of the same ethnicity.
The ‘Peoples of Russia’ was the largest series of the Imperial Porcelain Factory and it was initiated by Nicholas II on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the Romanov House. For 10 years, from 1907 to 1917, the emperor was given 3-4 sculptures every year on Christmas Eve.
A little more than 70 statuettes have survived and, today, most of them have been included in the collections of the Hermitage, the Russian Museum and the Kunstkamera in St. Petersburg.
Take a look at some of them below.
Buryat
The Hermitage
Samoyed (Samoyedic peoples of Siberia)
The Hermitage
Ostyak woman (modern name of this peoples is Khanty)
The Hermitage
Tungusic shaman
The Hermitage
Bashkir man
The Hermitage
Chukchi man
The Hermitage
Crimean Tatar woman
The Hermitage
‘Velikoross’ ‘[Great Russian’] from Ryazan Province
The Hermitage
Maloruss woman [Woman from ‘Small Russia’, modern Ukraine]
The Hermitage
Woman from Tula Province
The Hermitage
Ainu woman
The Hermitage
Woman from Saratov Province
The Hermitage
Yakut man
The Hermitage
Mingrelian man
The Hermitage
Lezgin man
The Hermitage
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