Solovyov Mansion

Sergei Solovyov’s own house was built in 1901-1902 and is designed in the manner of Franco - Belgian Art Nouveau ^[5] . In earlier works, the architect was inclined to eclecticism and was fond of the pseudo-Russian style , a personal mansion is the only work of the architect in the genre of a private residential building and the first in modernism ^{[6] [7]} . By the beginning of the 20th century, Solovyov was de facto the main architect of Moscow, who carried out the largest state orders, and was engaged in large public buildings and projects. His own house became for him a kind of self-portrait, an opportunity to express his artistic tastes in all their breadth, without looking back at the requirements of customers. Researchers name two sources that served as inspiration for Soloviev’s mansion: the Paris Castell Beranger apartment building by architect Hector Guimard and the Paul Ankara studio in Brussels . The facade composition of the latter is directly cited in Solovyov’s mansion ^[8] .

The mansion has a complex, asymmetric shape, visually divided into several independent parts. The main entrance and facade are located on the side of the Small Rzhevsky lane. The lobby and the main staircase occupy a separate room in the annexe, and the main volume was reserved for the architect’s office, which contained a library and a tiled stove. The second floor was occupied by bedrooms and a drawing room. This part of the building is crowned by a Victorian gable roof. The living room on the second floor is illuminated by a large three-part window, under which on the facade there is a tiled apron made of patterned tiles. The author of this panel is considered Mikhail Vrubel ^{[8] [9]} .

The facades of the building are distinguished by an abundance of artistic details and expressive means. Stained-glass windows , 14 majolica panels, murals, stucco moldings , curved lattices and brackets , rustication of walls, a variety of window openings and complex volumetric composition - all together they embodied the idea of ​​modernity as a synthesis of art, and individually, each design element in the facade had symbolic meaning ^{[9 ] [10]} . For example, in the patterns of the Tondo medallions under the eaves of Roman and Arabic numerals , the years of construction are recorded - 1901 and MDCCCCII. The mail slot is made in the shape of a bat , symbolically reflecting the secrecy of correspondence. At the base of the columns, owls “sit” - a popular image of wisdom and endless life among Symbolist poets, and some arched windows are crowned with stucco chimeras . To the right of the front door is a bas-relief depicting a growling panther - the work of the sculptor Nikolai Andreev ^[11] .

Ceramic panel "Rome. Forum at night ”from the side of Khlebny Lane is also supposedly made according to the drawing of Mikhail Vrubel. Various sources attribute authorship to artists Maria Yakunchikova or Viktor Vasnetsov . Data on the name of the composition also diverge - they also cite “Night” and “Twilight”. Under the panel there is a high relief with the image of Athena Pallas framed by poppies and webbed wings - it is depicted in the decadent modernist style as the embodiment of a fatal beauty, not a warrior goddess. Even lower are semicircular majolica medallions with four muses of art, created according to the sketches of the artist Yakunchikova. Ceramics for all panels were produced at the Abramtsevo plant ^{[12] [13] [14]} .

The interiors of the mansion were no less carefully worked out and also corresponded to the idea of ​​an eclectic synthesis of styles and arts. Solovyov personally created sketches and designed new furniture, selected individual antique items for it. The walls were decorated with paintings and mosaics, ceilings and floors were stacked. Colleagues, friends and students presented Soloviev with works of art that fit into the interior and complement it ^[15] .

Immediately after the construction was completed, the building was highly praised by critics and was included in the list of the most outstanding “acquisitions of Moscow architecture” of the beginning of the century at the V Congress of Russian Architects. The Solovyov family lived in the house - a wife and three daughters, in the study and drawing room the architect worked with his students and colleagues. After Solovyov’s death in 1912, the widow had to lay a mansion for the bank, which required high maintenance costs ^[16] .

Soon the mansion was put up for auction. The buyer and new owner was the artist Pavel Pavlinov , the building belonged to him until 1921 . In 1922, the house was nationalized and transferred to the Economic Representation of Georgia in the RSFSR , which later replaced the permanent embassy. In the middle of the century, an annex in the style of cubic modernism was added to the building, which distorted the original artistic appearance ^[3] .

After the aggravation of political relations between Georgia and Russia in 2008, the embassy was removed from the building, the house was empty for several years. As of 2018, the former Solovyov mansion is occupied by the Georgian Interest Section at the Embassy of Switzerland ^[3] .

Solovyov’s mansion is often called one of the likely prototypes of Margarita’s house from the novel “The Master and Margarita ” by Mikhail Bulgakov , which inspired him to describe the window from which the heroine flies to the ball to Satan ^{[17] [18]} . The building was also filmed in the series “ Seventeen Moments of Spring ”: according to the plot, it contained the Gestapo ’s safe house, where they kept radio operator Kat ^{[19] [20]} .

• Arzumanova O. I. Pottery of Abramtsev in the collection of Moscow State University of Environmental Engineering. - M .: Giraffe, 2000 .-- S. 216. - 222 p. - ISBN 5-89832-017-2 .
• Velichko S. Your houses have a wonderful outfit // Science and Life. - M .: Editorial board of the journal "Science and Life", 1999. - November ( No. 11 ).
• Grishin A. I. Architect Sergey Solovyov: a poem without ending // Bulletin of the Russian University of Economics. G.V. Plekhanov. - M. , 2013 .-- S. 11-17 .
• Lobov O. I. Builders of Russia. XX century: Moscow at the beginning of the century . - M .: O-Master, 2001 .-- S. 563. - 701 p. - ISBN 5-9207-0001-7 .
• Moscow Commercial Institute. Start // Moscow Heritage / ed. F. Smirnova. - M .: LLC Solid-Press, 2017. - No. 4 (52) . - S. 56-63 .
• Nashchokina M.V. Moscow Art Nouveau. - 3rd ed. - SPb. : Kolo , 2011 .-- S. 453-458. - 792 p. - ISBN 978-5-901841-65-5 .
• Pechenkin I. The French style of the Moscow architect // Moscow Heritage. - M .: Joint Editorial Office of the Mayor and the Government of Moscow, 2015. - No. 1 (37) . - S. 38-45 .
• Traditions in the history of Russian culture // Art History: a magazine on the history and theory of art. - M .: Art History, 2005. - No. 2 . - S. 238 . - ISSN 2073-316X .
• Chertov V., Pechenkin I., Yudin A. Sergey Ustinovich Solovyov - architect and innovator of the late XIX - early XX centuries // "Personality Development". - 2012. - No. 1 . - S. 8-15 .

• Close-up facade elements
• Solovyov’s special features on the website of the “Discover Moscow” project