(b St Petersburg, 22 Jan 1815; d St Petersburg, 12 Aug 1859). Sculptor, son of (1) Ivan Terebenyov. From 1824 he attended the school attached to the St Petersburg Academy of Arts. At the Academy he was taught by Vasily Demut-Malinovsky. He left with a scholarship, but because of an early marriage he was not allowed to travel to Italy for further study. His chief works were of a monumental and decorative character, including sculpture for the buildings of the Board of Guardians of the Foundling Hospital in St Petersburg (1830s), statues of Wisdom and Justice for the Jordan staircase of the Winter Palace (restored after the fire of 1837) and decoration of the 1812 Hall in the Winter Palace, built according to plans by Karl Rossi (all in situ). Terebenyov occasionally executed portrait sculptures, of which the best known is a statuette of the poet Aleksandr Pushkin (1837; wax model, Moscow, Rus. Lib.). In 1845 he was made an Academician for his model of a figure of Atlas for a portico of the new building of the Hermitage Museum, which was built in 1839–52 to the plans of the German architect Leo von Klenze. The finished group of ten Atlantes (1844–9; in situ) is Terebenyov’s most impressive work. The figures are carved in grey granite brought from Serdobol’ on the shores of Lake Onega. The integrity of form, exactness of anatomical proportions, harmony of outline and high polish of the surface make this group one of the finest examples of late classicism in Russian sculpture.

Part of the Terebenyov family

• Terebenyov, Aleksandr (Ivanovich)
  • Yefimov, Nikolay