(b Vratza, 29 April 1878; d Sofia, 17 Dec 1959). Bulgarian sculptor and teacher. After graduating in 1903 from the National Academy of Arts (Natsionalna Hudozhestvena Academia) in Sofia, he continued his education until 1907 at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, as a student of Antonin Mercié. Here he learnt to work in marble, sculpting in a realistic manner. From 1914 to 1927 he lived in Rome, where he executed primarily portraits and nude figures (e.g. Nude Female, 1919; Sofia, N.A.G.). He also created an entire series of sculptures of well-known Italian actors and actresses (e.g. Valentina, 1919; Sofia, artist’s estate). He won recognition as an artist with a series of refined and intimate portraits of young women and of children (e.g. Child’s Dream, 1916; Sofia, N.A.G.); in these he revealed the internal state of being of the figure and captured the subtle nuances of motherhood and the purity of a child’s experiences. In 1922 he held his first exhibition in Sofia, although he did not return permanently to Bulgaria until 1927. As well as women and children, Nikolov sculpted statues and busts of well-known Bulgarian figures in the world of arts and literature (e.g. the poet Stoyan Michaelovsky, 1912, and Vladimir Dimitrov-Maistora, 1930; both Sofia, N.A.G.). He executed the Monument to Those Who Perished in the 1885 War (1909) in Vidin, north-west Bulgaria, and the figure of the lion on the Monument of the Unknown Soldier in Sofia. From 1931 to 1940 he was a professor of sculpture at the National Academy of Arts in Sofia. He is considered to be one of the first important 20th-century Bulgarian sculptors to work in marble, and his work had an influence on the succeeding generation of artists.

• Nikolov, Andrey
  • Bulgaria, §IV, 3: Sculpture, after 1878