Kondiain Eleonora Maximilianovna
1899, Dresden – 1986, Leningrad
Graphic artist, book designer. Daughter of the architect Maximilian Messmacher (1842–1906) and artist Barbara André (1865–1918); wife of astronomer Alexander Kondiain (1889–1937). Graduated from the women’s college, Transformation Church in Petrograd (1918). Worked (1918–1921) and studied at the State Free Art Studios/VKhUTEMAS (1918–1923; in 1919 transferred from Boris Popov’s workshop to Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin’s one). Member of New Man (late 1910s), United Labour Association (1923–1934, member of the commune).
Lived with her family in Crimea (1926–1927). Worked as a designer in the Young Guard publishing house (1929). In summer 1934 she participated in the expedition to Eastern Siberia (region of the Vitim and Olekma rivers), gathered material for the Evenk language textbook (a catalogue with Evgenia Evenbach and Eleonora Kondiain’s illustrations for primers for the peoples of the Far North, Siberia and Far East was published in Khabarovsk in 2013). In 1936 together with her family travelled along the Sukhumi Military Road.
In 1937, convicted under Article 58 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR on the case of her husband (“family member of a traitor”), exiled to Siberia, where she spent 19 years (8 in corrective labour camps in Narym and 11 in the penal settlement in the Kemerovo Region). Rehabilitated (1956), returned to Leningrad. Illustrated books, created watercolours and quill drawings. Member of the Union of Artists of the USSR.