Saltzman Albert and Alxander

Saltzman Albert and Alxander (1833-1897 • 1870-1919), Father and son, ethnic Germans. Members of the family of Theodor Saltzman, German colonist, who resettled in Georgia in the beginning of the 19th c.

Albert - architect. He was born in Tbilisi. There he received primary education; after that he underwent vocational training at the Petersburg Academy of Art. All his work was connected with Georgia. In 1861 he was elected the member of State Construction Commission. In 1865 – 1866 he visited France, England and Belgium, where he became familiar with the design work. In 1867 the Petersburg Academy of Art awarded him the title of the Academician of Architecture. In 1876 Albert was appointed the architect of Regional Engineering Department of the Caucasus Military Region. During 35 years of his work he designed many buildings in Tbilisi. He was one of the architects who imparted new quality to the urban development by designing the facades of Renascence-baroque style that prevailed in Western Europe. At the same time Albert incorporated the motifs of Georgian traditional architecture in decorating the facades of buildings (residential house on No.22 G. Tabidze str.).

Among the buildings that were built according to the designs of Albert Saltzman in Tbilisi, the following projects stand out: so-called ‘Blue Gallery’ – the National Picture Gallery (1868), The Catholic Church (on I. Javakhishvili str., 1870), the building of the Caucasus Museum (at the place of the new building of National Museum named after S. Janashia, 1870), the building of the classical school for girls named after St. Olga (present-day No.10, L. Gudiashvili str., 1874), hotel Orient (former House of Artists, 1895), etc. He designed a number of residential houses for aristocracy and middle-class in Tbilisi, some of which are destroyed today. Borjomi boasts N. Izmirov’s summer house and summer palace of Grand Prince, Viceroy Mikhail Nikolaevich that were constructed as per A. Saltzman’s projects.

Architecture was not the only passion of A. Saltzman. History has preserved the sketches of architectural landscapes and outlines of theatrical costumes painted by A. Saltzman in watercolor (they are kept at the National Museum of Georgia).

Alexander – painter, son of architect Albert Saltzman. He was born in Tbilisi. He studied at the Petersburg Imperial Academy of Art; in 1892 – 1894 he continued his training at the private artistic studio of Leonid Pasternak. Soon he left for Munich, where he attended the lessons at the workshop of German symbolist Franz von Stuck. In 1916 Alexander and his wife Jeane Matignon returned to Tbilisi. They lived in No.115, Mikhail avenue (present-day D. Agmashenebeli avenue) in the house built for him by his father Albert Saltzman. Alexander served as an art manager of Tbilisi Opera and Ballet Theater and taught painting at school for a long while. In 1918 – 1919 he made stage designs for the productions of P. Tchaikovsky’s Queen of Spades, Hoffmann’s Tales, D. Arakishvili’s Legend of Shota Rustaveli, Z. Paliashvili’s Abesalom and Eteri. In 1918 together with Ziga (Zygnunt) Waliszewski, Alexander created the curtain for the Tbilisi Theater of Opera and Ballet. He participated in the exhibitions of ‘The Society of the Caucasus for the Promotion of Fine Arts’ and ‘Maly Krug’ („малый круг“).

In 1920s he took active part in the avant-garde artistic exhibitions in Tbilisi. In 1920 Alexander Saltzman and his wife moved to Paris.