Pyotr Karlovich Klodt (Klodt von Yurgensburg or Clodt von Jürgensburg), Russian sculptor, who came from a distinguished family of Baltic Germans. He was an artillery officer but resigned his commission in 1828 in order to devote himself to sculpture. From 1830 he was a part-time student at the Academy of Arts in St Petersburg, where he attracted attention for his mastery in depicting horses. He soon began to receive major commissions. In 1838 he was elected an Academician and appointed to a teaching post at the Academy. He was a favourite sculptor of Nicholas I of Russia. Klodt's most famous group of horse sculptures, the Horse Tamers, was installed at the Anichkov Bridge in St. Petersburg in 1851. His last significant work was a posthumous tribute to his patron, a horse statue for the equestrian monument to Nicholas I on Saint Isaac's Square, which has the distinction of being the first equestrian statue in the world with merely two support points (the rear feet of the horse). He died in his estate in Finland. //