Biography

Dillon, Maria Lvovna  - Russian sculptor. She was born on October 27, 1858, in Ponevezh, Kovno Governorate. From the family of a tax-farmer. Studied at the Imperial Arts Academy (1878-1888, the external student until 1887). A. R. von Bock, N. Laveretsky and I. I. Podosenov taught her. Besides sculpture, she studied the etching technique under the guidance of artist V. A. Bobrov. Was repeatedly awarded with small silver medals for drawings and molding from nature, received the Academy Council praise for sculptural portraits and bas-reliefs. In 1888, for the sculpture "Andromeda chained to the rock" (plaster, Russian Museum) received a gold medal and was titled a class artist of the second degree in sculpture. 

Upon graduation, she continued her education abroad – first in Paris, then in Rome. In 1898, Dillon performed fireplace "Spring Awakening" (marble) for the mansion of A. F. Kelch in St. Petersburg. Worked as a portrait and genre sculptor. The author of the monument to the mathematician N.I. Lobachevsky (1896, bronze, granite) in Kazan, tombstones to the painter K.Y. Kryzhitsky at Smolensk cemetery in St. Petersburg (1912, bronze, granite), actress V. F. Komissarzhevskaya (1915, bronze, labradorite) and composer Anton Arensky (1908) – both at the Scene Masters’ Necropolis in Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

Died on June 14, 1932,  in Leningrad.