Architect Klein: biography, personal life, social activities, photos of buildings in Moscow

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Roman Ivanovich Klein is a Russian and Soviet architect, whose work was distinguished by great originality. The breadth and diversity of his interests in architecture amazed his contemporaries. For 25 years, he has completed hundreds of projects, different both in purpose and in artistic solutions.

The main business of the life of the architect R. Klein is the Moscow Museum of Fine Arts. Pushkin. He brought him wide fame and the title of academician in architecture. The path of this talented person to the heights of mastery was intense and selfless. Information about the biography of the architect Klein will be presented in the article.

Early years

He was born in 1858 in the family of a merchant of the 1st guild Klein Ivan Makarovich. The mother of the future architect, Emilia Ivanovna, was educated and gifted musically. Students of the conservatory and artists came to their Moscow house, located on Bolshaya Dmitrovka. Subsequently, many of them became celebrities.

On one such evening, Roman Klein met Vivien Alexander Osipovich, an architect. He was very sociable andtogether with the boy he visited the construction of buildings, explaining the principles of their construction, showing the drawings.

Youth Dream

Since then, the young man had a passionate desire to become an architect. At the same time, both his mother and father were against his dreams. The first wanted to see him as a violinist, and the second wanted to transfer the merchant business to him. But he resolutely declared his desire and subsequently did everything to fulfill it.

In the gymnasium, Klein drew well and became famous by making caricatures of teachers. From the sixth grade, he became a student at the School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. After class, he did not want to return home, where strict rules reigned.

Leaving home

The future architect Klein felt independent and left his parents, refusing their material support. He believed that the money of his parents would prevent him from becoming a creative person. Roman rented a small room, almost without furniture. His mother was in despair, she asked him to take at least a bed from his parents' house.

But he refused and brought to his closet a spring mattress bought from a junk dealer. In the room there were only goats of drawing boards, and a mattress was placed on them. In the morning, the mattress was placed in a corner, and the drawing board was returned to the goats. This is how the novice architect worked.

Junior draftsman

Meanwhile, Roman Ivanovich Klein got a job in the studio of the architect, sculptor and painter V. I. Sherwood as a junior draftsman. He was designing the building of the Historical Museum on Red Square.

The future architect copied the drawings, acquired the necessaryknowledge and skills, learning to skillfully use the architectural techniques of ancient architects in modern structures, which later manifested itself in his independent projects.

After the first earnings, his workshop room began to change. First, a cheap carpet was purchased to cover the mattress, and then handles and a back appeared on the makeshift sofa. Then he was upholstered with colorful damask and took a seat by the window.

As the wife of the architect Klein recalled, this relic sofa was always in her husband's office, and he loved to tell the story about her when he became famous.

Eclecticist

After working for two years as a draftsman, Klein was able to save up funds to move to St. Petersburg, where he entered the Academy of Arts. The period of study coincided with the construction boom that began in Russia. Tenement houses, mansions, banks, shops began to appear in big cities, which were stylized as architecture of different eras.

This direction in architecture, as it seemed, did not differ in the unity of style, and it acquired the name of eclecticism, which means “chosen, chosen” in ancient Greek.

From a modern point of view, eclecticism, of which Klein was an adherent, is, in fact, an independent style. It includes elements of art inherent in antiquity, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque.

They were used by architects who took into account the scale and function of modern buildings and the use of new building materials such as concrete, iron, glass. As an example of thisstyle, you can bring the Livadia Palace in the Crimea. It was built in 1883-85. with the participation of the architect Klein.

Private bookings

The first private commission was made by Klein when he was 25 years old, in 1887. It was a small church not far from St. Petersburg - the tomb of the Shakhovskys. But in order to make a real statement, a large social order was needed. And soon such an opportunity presented itself.

Moscow City Duma has announced a competition for the construction of Red Square. Klein received the second prize for the design of the shopping arcade and thus attracted the attention of private customers. With their funds, they built a wholesale store, the so-called Middle Rows.

The shapes of windows, architraves, high roofs, these rows were linked with the architecture of St. Basil's Cathedral, standing opposite, and were perfectly inscribed in the ensemble of ancient buildings.

Architect Roman Klein proved to be a skilled practitioner. He successfully located a large building on a steep slope leading to the river. Now he was provided with constant orders.

In the 1890s

During this period, Klein created a number of projects for large industrial enterprises in Moscow. These are buildings and workshops of such enterprises as:

• Prokhorovskaya Trekhgornaya manufactory.
• Vysotsky's tea-packing factory.
• Jaco's factories.
• Goujon Plant.

At the same time, he is designing many buildings for various purposes, among them:

• Mansions.
• Apartment houses.
• Gymnasium.
• Hospitals.
• Trading warehouses.
• Student residences.

With all the existing variety of buildings, they reveal a certain monotony of stylistic solutions and decorative techniques that are characteristic of many masters of that period. But the buildings built by the architect Klein in Moscow are still distinguished by the fact that their layout is very well thought out, and the internal space is rationally organized. An example of an original solution is the buildings of the Shelaputin and Morozov clinics, where the corner towers are covered with glass domes, and under them are bright and spacious operating rooms.

Since then, the support of the architect R. Klein by the Moscow merchants has become constant.

Chinese house

He appeared on Myasnitskaya Street in 1896. This unusual building, designed by Klein, became famous. To this day there is a shop "Tea-coffee", which is popular. At the insistence of the customer Perlov, a major tea merchant, Klein stylized the design and facades of the interior as an ancient Chinese pagoda.

At the same time, the architect himself criticized his creation, noting its far-fetchedness and tackiness. Nevertheless, the tea house played a role in the development of the architect's creative principles. Chinese motifs successfully set off the purpose of the building. And in the future, the architect Klein did not just hide the brick blocks of the building behind a stylish facade, but expressed the function of the building in the decor. Soon a very important moment came in his life.

Museum construction

In 1898, the construction of the Museum of Fine Arts began, which became the life work of Roman Klein. He gave him about 16 years and received the title of academician of architecture. The building was erected in the style of an ancient temple. The columns of its facade resemble the colonnade of the temple in the Acropolis of Athens. According to the author, the classical style and ancient Greek motifs best suited the purpose of this building.

When designing the facade, the Ionic porticos of the Erechtheion were taken as a model. This is a small temple located near the Parthenon. To give the exposition halls a historical look, the architects designed Greek and Italian courtyards, as well as a white front and Egyptian halls. In connection with the implementation of such an idea, the interior design itself and the facades of the building turned into original exhibits. The museum was opened in 1912.

Further activities

The auditorium of one of the largest Moscow cinemas, the Coliseum on Chistye Prudy, built by Klein, was distinguished by a clearly developed plan and high technical merits. The architect created a semi-rotunda, which successfully concealed the real dimensions of the building, which organically fit into the historical surroundings of the old street.

Another interesting and unusual work of Klein was the Borodino Bridge, which replaced the old pontoon bridge in 1912. Klein brilliantly coped with the task, he applied the design of metal trusses proposed by the engineers. The design of the bridge was dictated by the celebration of the centenary of the victory over Napoleon.

Entrieswere decorated with propylaea (porticoes and columns symmetrical to the axis of movement) of gray granite. On the opposite side, paired obelisks were located, and the gatherings were given the appearance of bastions. In the same period, Klein created a project of obelisk monuments on the Borodino field.

Trading House

One of the most daring and innovative creations of the architect Klein in Moscow was the Trade House, which belonged to the partnership of Muir and Merilize, built in 1908. Now in this building there is a TSUM store. This is the only commercial building in the practice of the architect, which he erected on an iron frame.

This was a progressive design by American engineers. By the standards of the time, the structure was unusually light and tall. Its façades successfully correlated such elements as stone cladding of piers and large-scale glazing. The building was built in an airy and constructive Gothic style. His motifs can be read in the profiles of the cornices, the elongated windows, the overhanging corner ledge of the façade.

The Keppen store on Myasnitskaya, built at the beginning of the 20th century, the office of the Vygotsky factory (tea-packing), located on Krasnoselskaya, 57, where the Babaevskaya factory is now located, belong to the Art Nouveau style. They were also new in artistic terms.

Antique motifs

Completing the path of creative research, the architect Klein again returned to the motifs of ancient architecture, to which he treated with great respect. One of these works was the tomb of the Yusupovs near Moscow,in Arkhangelsk with semicircles of colonnades.

And also this is the Geological Institute on Mokhovaya Street. Its end face faces the red line of the street. With its facade, it is stylistically connected with neighboring buildings dating back to the 18th-20th centuries.

When referring to the strict classics, the already established architectural ensemble is not violated. The architect managed to fit in the new building with his usual tact. This reflected the highest level of the master's culture, his delicate taste, which never betrayed him.

Recent years

The architect lived in Olsufevsky Lane. The entire second floor of his house was occupied by a workshop. The house was built gradually, starting from an inconspicuous log house to a mansion with outbuildings, stone first and second floors. The overall façade was decorated in the Tuscan style. All the creations that made up the glory of the architect were conceived and designed in the house-workshop located on the Maiden's Field.

After 1917, the architect Klein was also in demand with the new government. He worked until the end of his life, was on the staff of the Pushkin Museum as an architect, headed the department at Moscow Higher Technical School, was a member of the board of the Northern and Caucasian Railways. He died in Moscow in 1924.