Sergei Mikhailovich Orlov

Born Sept. 1 (14), 1911, in St. Petersburg; died Nov. 18, 1971, in Moscow. Soviet sculptor. People’s Artist of the RSFSR (1968). Corresponding member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR (1954).

In 1925, Orlov graduated from the Vologda Art Technicum. In 1929 he began working at the laboratory of the Moscow Museum of Ceramics, and in 1936 he became associated with the Dmitrovskii Porcelain Factory. Orlov created compositions in porcelain based on motifs from Russian folk tales and heroic epics. He also did monumental sculpture. His works include Mother (plaster of paris, 1943; Russian Museum, Leningrad), Alexander Nevsky (porcelain, 1943–44; Tret’iakov Gallery), and Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish (porcelain, wood, and stone, 1944; Tret’iakov Gallery), all three of which were awarded the State Prize of the USSR in 1946. Orlov collaborated with A. P. Antropov and N. L. Shtamm on the monument to Iurii Dolgorukii in Moscow (bronze and granite, unveiled in 1954; architect, V. S. Andreev); he also designed the monument to Afanasii Nikitin (bronze, 1955) in Kalinin. Orlov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and a number of medals.