Jakov
Vasilievich Pauchenko was born on 21 March,
1866 in the family of Elisavetgrad petty bourgeois. His father Vasiliy Pauchenko was
well-known, since 1861 he kept icon painting, iconostasic and artistic-gliding studio.
Jakov Pauchenko received his first art education at Evening Drawing Classes under Elisavetgrad real school, which were
founded by Petr Krestonostsev, an academician of portrait painting. The Certificate 403 with the signatures of
Elisabethgrad real school principal M.Zavadskiy and director of Evening Drawing Classes
Petr Krestonostsev indicates: "In drawing of originals - excellent, the Ornaments -
excellent, heads of Depyui's system - good, antique head - good, by heart - good".
It is necessary to mention, that Evening Drawing Classes were a unique
educational institution in that time. According to P.Krestonostsev: "There is no such
educational institution in provincial towns of Russia". He meant not only a level of
teaching and a set of educational manuals in the volume of the first two classes of Art
Academy but also an opportunity of free education for representatives of any social rank.
An artist P.Ivachev stressed in his letter (12 December 1892) to a prominent Ukrainian
linguist A.Potebnja that Petr Krestonoscev, a founder of art education in the city, can be
put in one row with the founder of Ukrainian professional theatre Mark Kropivnitskiy, the
founder of a famous music school Gustav Neuhaus, the founder of a museum science Vladimir
Jastrebov and other outstanding people of Elisavetgrad .
Only for the first three years of existence of the Classes (1880-1883) 8
students of P.Krestonostsev entered Academy of Art, 8 - Shtiglits' School, 2 - the Moscow
School of painting, sculpture and architecture. Jakov Pauchenko was among them.
Jakov Pauchenko received his professional training in the School of painting,
sculpture and architecture of Moscow Art Society. A personal record of a graduate
J.V.Pauchenko is stored in Russian State Archive of Literature and Arts. Among the
documents one may found not only drawings of Pauchenko-student and his Certificate of receiving a Small silver medal for
his annual project of 1893, which shows J.Pauchenko's high professional level, but also a
lot of applications to postpone the terms of tuition fee, from this fact we may conclude
that business was rotten in J. Pauchenko's father's studio. Perhaps that was the reason
why J.Pauchenko returned to Elisavetgrad due to family circumstances after passing the
exams, not waiting the commencement. He turned 27 by then and he had a rank of architect.
In 1897 Jakov Pauchenko became a rightfull owner of the parental workshop and began to
expand its potential due to architectural practice.
Jakov Pauchenko is one of the architects, who created the unique modern
architectural ensembles of the historic city centre of Elisavetgrad. St. Anna's Hospital of the Red Cross (now - Municipal Kirovograd
hospital ¹ 2), Golidenberg's
electric-water-hospital (now - Municipal Kirovograd hospital ¹ 3), Doctor Vaysenberg's house (now - building of
Regional Administration of public health), Doctor
Meytus's house (now - Kirovograd G.Neuhaus children's music school), International Credit Bank (17 Lenin Str.), Gostinniy courtyard (now - the building of Security
Service of Ukraine), theatre "Illusion"
(now - School of Arts), many private houses were built on J.Pauchenko's projects.
In total J.Pauchenko created more than 20 recorded objects and it's only for
48 years of life. Elisavetgrad newspaper "The voice of South" wrote in 1914:
"… a number of buildings created by him, point to his talent as an architect… He
was the first to give examples of artistic architecture in our town, and it is his
undoubted merit…". Jakov Vasiljevich did his best to introduce a spirit of culture
and art into provincial town, and his own house (built on the
basis of J.Pauchenko's project in 1899, now - Art-Memorial Museum of A.A.Osmerkin) was a
base for it. This building had become architect's unique landmark; it is a highly
professional example of unification of the leading architecture styles of that time -
"brick" and "neo-Russian". The house not only reflected the nature of
his creator, moreover it embodied high essence of art - a freedom to choose. Musical and
theatrical evenings took place there; projects of future architectural buildings were
created in the same house. J.V.Pauchenko's nephew Sasha
(future famous painter, professor of art Alexander Alexandrovich Osmerkin) was raised in
this atmosphere.
Jakov Pauchenko died on October 29, 1914 and was buried in Petropavlovskoe graveyard, which does not exists at
present. J.Pauchenko's grave had vanished under foundations of new buildings, but his town
- in which we live - remained.
Regional Award in the sphere of architecture, heraldy and veksilology and
decorative and applied art named after Jakov Pauchenko was initiated by the Kirowograd
Regional Council in 2002. |
