Architecture

Fountain Girl-mycelium in Klin

Fountain Girl-mycelium in Klin
Fountain Girl-mycelium in Klin

There is a fountain at the intersection of Papivin Street and Proezhego Lane in Klin, in the center of which is a sculpture known as the Girl-mycelium. A fountain is like a fountain, sculpture is like a sculpture, of which there are many. But her story is very interesting.

In 1893, the Zolino estate, which is a dozen kilometers from Klin, was bought by the Siberian gold miner Dmitry Chernyadev. Now there is devastation, only a birch alley and a neglected park with two ponds have survived, and the house itself burned down in the dashing 90s.

Fountain Girl-mycelium in Klin
Fountain Girl-mycelium

The idea of ​​the sculpture arose back in 1869-1870 during Kamensky’s short stay in Russia

For the first time, the sculpture (then still in plaster) appeared in public on November 17 (29), 1871 in St. Petersburg during the first exhibition of the Association of the Itinerants. There were 46 paintings exhibited and only one sculpture – our “Girl-mycelium”, which was still called simply “Pick mushrooms” at that time.

Then, in the early 1870s, Kamensky had a black streak: his wife died, the Academy of Arts refused him a professorship. And when he found out that his “Girl” was valued at 15 rubles, he became indignant and broke off relations with the Itinerants. After that, the sculptor emigrated to America, where he lived in obscurity for 20 years.

Collected mushrooms in a basket
Collected mushrooms in a basket

In the early 1890s, one of the journalists pulled him out of oblivion and life began to improve – he was invited to a professorship at the American School of Art in New York, he won a competition for sculptural projects for the Capitol in Kansas, and in 1893 he became the head art department of the Russian pavilion at the World Exhibition in Chicago.

Fountain in summer
Fountain in summer

Around this time, he visited Russia and agreed on the casting of the “Girl-mycelium” at the Ural Kaslinsky plant.

One cast-iron copy entered the Zolino estate, and the other ended up at the All-Russian Art and Industrial Exhibition in 1896 in Nizhny Novgorod, where it decorated the entrance to the openwork cast-iron pavilion of the Kaslinsky plant. But the real triumph awaited her in 1900 at the World’s Fair in Paris. There the Kasli pavilion made a splash and received the highest award – the Grand Prix and the Big Gold Medal. “Mushroom” was awarded the Big Silver Medal.

The mycelium girl in the Soviet years
The mycelium girl in the Soviet years

After the revolution, during the period of plundering of everything and everyone, the “Girl” was lucky – she was taken to Klin and installed at the Trade Rows. They say that in the 1930s, Arkady Gaidar, who lived nearby, liked to walk in the garden near the “Girl-mycelium”. In the 1990s, they began to steal “Gribnitsa”. Therefore, a copy was made, and the original was moved to the Museum of Local Lore.

“Girl-mycelium” is an unofficial symbol of Klin, and the locals affectionately call her “Alyonushka”.

The second original in Yekaterinburg
The second original in Yekaterinburg
The original of the sculpture in the Klin Museum of Local Lore
The original of the sculpture in the Klin Museum of Local Lore