Portrait of G.I. Sonina

From July 14, the Kaluga Museum of Fine Arts (Lenin St., 104, main exposition) will open an exhibition of one painting dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of Mikhail Ivanovich Lastochkin (1922 - 2000) "Portrait of G. I. Sonin."

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of the famous Russian Soviet sculptor Mikhail Ivanovich Lastochkin (09/22/1922 - 04/20/2000), our glorious countryman who never forgot his Kaluga roots.

M. I. Lastochkin was born in the village of Bulatovo, Dzerzhinsky District, into a peasant family. He studied at Kondrovskaya secondary school. At the age of nineteen, literally from a school desk, he volunteered for the ranks of the Soviet Army and went through the years of the Great Patriotic War through difficult paths. After demobilization in 1945, he entered the Moscow Institute of Applied and Decorative Arts, graduating in 1951. His thesis work was a statue of K. E. Tsiolkovsky sculpted by him, later donated by the author to the House-Museum of the great scientist. There she is at the present time.

After graduating from the institute, the sculptor remained in Moscow and soon gained fame as a master of sculptural portraiture. He created a whole gallery of portraits of remarkable people, mostly of his contemporaries. This is a rather difficult genre, forcing the author to carefully peer into the faces of his characters, not limited to reproducing the external features of a portrait resemblance, but striving to reflect the bright psychological individuality of the personality. Mikhail Ivanovich succeeded. This, in particular, is evidenced by the monument to the Hero of the Soviet Union M. A. Guryanov in Zhukov. Equally successful is the characterization of the individuality of the Hero of the Soviet Union, Cavalier of the Three Orders of Glory A. V. Aleshin in a sculptural portrait made in 1961 (Kaluga Museum of Fine Arts). M. I. Lastochkin - also the author of the monument to V. I. Lenin,

A special place in the work of the master is occupied by a sculptural portrait cast in bronze of the Hero of Socialist Labor, chairman of the collective farm "Russia" Georgy Ivanovich Sonin (11/21/1903 - 12/16/1987). This is truly a legendary figure. Born in the village of Yuryevo, Sukhinichsky district, in the post-revolutionary years he served in the district police, worked as an accountant at the Sukhinichsky bank, the manager of the Kaluga bank, and the head of the department of the Kaluga regional department of agriculture. But he entered the history of the country as an organizer of collective farm production, repeatedly brilliantly demonstrating his ability to bring lagging agricultural enterprises to the forefront. His achievements were appreciated. Twice he was elected to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. M. I. Lastochkin was able to expressively convey the strong-willed face of his contemporary, resolute in his actions,

M. I. Lastochkin was a participant in numerous All-Union art exhibitions, including the anniversary exhibition "Kaluga is 600 years old", held in 1971 in Moscow. His personal exhibitions were held in Voskresensk, Moscow Region in 1967, as well as in Kaluga and Kondrov in 1970.