Paul Troubetzkoy : le prince sculpteur

Exhibition at the Musée d'Orsay, Paris, 30 September 2025 - 11 January 2026,
then at the Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Milan, 27 February - 28 June 2026

Born in Italy to a Russian prince and an American opera singer, Paul Troubetzkoy (1866-1938) trained in Milan and spent time in Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Paris, while also pursuing a brilliant career in the United States, where he enjoyed considerable success with works inspired by the Wild West.

A talented portraitist, he charmed elites from around the world: aristocrats, celebrities, figures from Parisian high society and even the first stars of American cinema. But beyond his famous portraits – and more particularly his portrait statuettes – Troubetzkoy also distinguished himself in the creation of public monuments and animal sculpture, which he practised with great subtlety, echoing his vegetarian convictions shared with Leo Tolstoy and George Bernard Shaw.

Rich in images and previously unpublished information, this exhibition catalogue traces the career of this extraordinary sculptor and raises the question of Impressionist sculpture, i.e. ‘sculpture where life takes precedence over exact form, where the overall view takes precedence over detail, where harmonic composition lies in the intensity of the impression’.