Russian artist, sculptor, one of the founders of symbolism and art Nouveau in Russian plastics. Born in Moscow 8 (20) November 1859. Studied at the Moscow school of painting, sculpture and architecture (MUZHVZ, 1873-1881 and 1883-1886) S. I. Ivanov, a prominent sculptor, romance, and also at the St. Petersburg Academy of arts (1882). He lived in Moscow.
Originally gained fame as a portrait artist, Vilalonga impressionisticheskie-textured, with a subtle transfer of personal psychological "aura" of the model. One song turned into a kind of interior monuments, full of inner significance and dignity – this is the brooding of P. M. Tretyakov (1899, bronze bust, mounted inside the Tretyakov gallery, Moscow). Others took the form of distinguishing, not devoid of irony etudes – like the statue of S. V. Ivanov (1901-1901, plaster Museum of fine arts of Tatarstan, Kazan; the bronze is in the Tretyakov gallery); the venerable painter has been here kind, inquisitive, "caustic" insight peering into the motive. Psychology in such things as would appletrees, showing the viewer not the figures as such, and the clots in their spiritual life. Wonderful volohonsky a monument to Russian first printer Ivan Fyodorov opened in 1909. He stands out as a stately silhouette and a bright historicism, expressed in the medieval clothes of the hero, and in the ancient inscriptions on the pedestal, and the architectural reference monument set against the backdrop of the medieval walls of Kitai-Gorod. Specific motif (Fedorov pictured reading just received a printed sheet of the first printed books) organically transformed here into a symbol of Patriotic education.
After the October revolution of 1917 Volnukhin participated in the implementation of the plan of monumental propaganda (temporary monuments to T. Shevchenko and K. D. Ushinsky, 1918; not preserved; Ushinsky was only a fragment in the form of a bronze casting of the head in the Tretyakov gallery). From 1895 he taught at the Moscow school of painting (later the Free art studios). Becoming the successor of his teacher S. I. Ivanov sculpture Department, was a mentor of a significant part of the leading Russian sculptors of the first half of the 20th century (N..Andreev, A. S. Golubkina, S. T. Konenkov, A. T. Matveev, and). To the end of his life retired to his house in Gelendzhik.
Died Volnukhin in Noumea on 11 June 1921.
