Zhukovskogo St., 47, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 191014
Among the Art Nouveau houses in St. Petersburg, the house located at 47 Zhukovsky Street has one of the most comical decorations. The building is adorned with amusing mascarons. But the most comical element is the pair of crocodile-dragons atop the right risalit.
The decor includes several owls decorating the windows in a floral pattern and the gate portal.
The house was built in 1858 by architect V. K. Treder in the eclectic style. Later, he also rebuilt it in 1872. The building acquired its current appearance after reconstruction by one of the future leaders of Art Nouveau, Alexander Ivanovich von Hohen, in 1901. Until then, the house had worked in the eclectic style up to the very last years of the 19th century, and only around 1900–1901 did von Hohen turn his attention to Art Nouveau.
The house on Zhukovsky Street is one of his first works in the new style. By the way, the Art Nouveau here is still not very pure: in the stucco decorations, characteristic decorative details of Art Nouveau are combined with the traditional "Louis XVI style" typical of eclecticism. It will be only a short time before other, more mature works appear. And this is the very beginning, perhaps the first attempt.
However, judging by the building’s exterior with its uniform grid of windows, his intervention in the front block was mainly limited to the redesign of the facade (and possibly the addition or reconstruction of the right risalit, creating a slight asymmetry).
Sources:
https://www.citywalls.ru/house7225.html
https://babs71.livejournal.com/1121552.html
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