Commission and Creation of the Bronze Horseman
- When
- 1770–1782
- Where
- Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
Catherine the Great commissioned the statue; Diderot suggested Falconet, who spent twelve years, 1770 to 1782, creating it.
Catherine the Great commissioned the equestrian monument to Peter the Great. In correspondence with the empress, Denis Diderot suggested his friend, the French sculptor Étienne Maurice Falconet, for the commission. Creating the Bronze Horseman, including pedestal, horse, and rider, took twelve years, from 1770 to 1782. Catherine modeled Peter the Great's face on his death mask and on numerous portraits found in Saint Petersburg.
Sources
- Bronze Horseman Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-23
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.