Sculptor Iakob Nikoladze: Auguste Rodin's assistant

Georgian sculptor Iakob Nikoldadze was Auguste Rodin’s assistant – and it was Rodin, and his Parisian workshop, that provided the inspiration for many of his own works.

The Georgian National Museum Dmitri Shevardnadze National Gallery is holding an exhibition of Iakob Nikoladze’s works from 29 November 2016 to 28 February 2017. The exhibition is called ‘Iakob Nikoladze 140’ to commemorate the 140th anniversary of his birth. It displays his sketches, artwork, busts, sculptures, and memorial material.

Iakob Nikoladze (1876-1951) was born in Kutaisi, Georgia: the 13th son. His father died when he was four years old.

Because there was no sculpture school in Georgia, he studied in Russia, Ukraine, Italy and France. He joined the Stroganov Art School in Moscow in 1892 at the age of 16. From 1895-96 he studied in Odessa, Ukraine.

Georgia was not aware of him until 1897 when he exhibited his works in the Caucasus Fine Arts Society, including his sculpture of Georgia’s 12th century poet Shota Rustaveli. He continued to create busts of Rustaveli – the gypsum one on display was created in 1937.

Shota Rustaveli (1937)

In 1899 he went to Paris, France, to study with Alexander Falghieri and Antoine Mercier. In 1904 he moved to Italy for six months before returning to Paris. Here he was influenced by the works of Auguste Rodin.

From 1906-1908, for 15 months, he worked as the assistant to Auguste Rodin in Paris – the greatest modern sculpture of his time, and creator of ‘The Kiss.’ Apparently Rodin taught him to ‘Work as you are singing, but more loudly!’ Nikoladze created his own version of ‘The Kiss’ – not a full-size sculpture of two lovers in embrace, but the stone bust of a man kissing the back of a women’s neck, called Kiss. It is more subtle and nuanced. Nikoladze also sculpted a marble bust of a man and a woman kissing, which he called Salomea (1905).

Kiss

Salomea (1905)

On display is a photograph of Nikoladze (on the right) in Rodin’s studio in Paris (1905-06).

(Photograph of Iakob Nikoladze, 1905-1906)

Nikoladze returned to Georgia in 1908 where he created busts and sculptures of famous Georgian social and artistic figures, including writer Ilia Chavchavadze (1837-1907) and poet Galaktion Tabidze (1892-1959) – the gypsum portrait exhibited was created in 1939. In 1922 he was head of the sculpture faculty in the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts.

Grave of Ilia Chavchavadze, Mtatsminda Pantheon

Galaktion Tabidze (1939)

I like his glazed ceramic sculptured bust of a woman with closed eyes, called Insomnia (1925) and the ceramic men called Unemployed (1904). Another famous piece is Wind (1905).

Insomnia (1925)

Unemployed (1904)

Wind (1905)

Ubisi Fresco (1946)

Ermolova (1911)

Near the Spring (1930s)

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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