Nikolay Laveretsky

Nikolay Akimovich Laveretsky (Russian: Николай Акимович Лаверецкий; 13 February 1837, Moscow - 23 October 1907, Saint Petersburg) was a Russian sculptor and art professor.

Biography His father, was also a sculptor; and his younger brother, , would become one as well. He initially attended the drawing school at the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts then, from 1851, studied at the Imperial Academy of Arts with Nikolai Pimenov.

During his time there, he received several awards; a large silver medal for his bas-relief of Achilles with the corpse of Hector (1857), a small gold medal for a bas-relief of Cincinnatus being named Dictator (1859) and, finally, the large gold medal for a bas-relief of Regulus returning to Carthage (1860). This was accompanied by a stipend to study abroad, and the title of "Artist First-Class".

He remained in Italy for many years. His sculpture of a boy and girl feeding a bird, sent from Rome in 1868, earned him the title of "academician". In 1900, it was displayed in the Kasli pavilion at the Exposition Universelle in Paris. The pavilion was such a success that French President Émile Loubet offered to buy it for the equivalent of two million rubles. The offer was accepted, but Laveretsky's statue was excluded, as it was a symbol of "Mother Russia". The sale was never finalized, however, and the pavilion was dismantled. In 1957, the statue and parts of the pavilion were recreated from old drawings and models, and placed in an art gallery that has since become part of the Yekaterinburg Museum of Fine Arts.

He died in 1907, and is interred at the Smolensky Cemetery in Saint Petersburg.