Obolenskaya Yulia Leonidovna

Obolenskaya Yulia Leonidovna

1889, St Petersburg – 1945, Moscow

Painter, illustrator, writer. Daughter of Leonid Obolensky, philosopher, editor, and publisher of the magazine Russkoe Bogatstvo (Russian Wealth); sister of Leonid L. Obolensky who was one of the founders of sound motion pictures in the country. Studied at the Elizaveta Zvantseva School of Art under Léon Bakst and Mstislav Dobuzhinsky (1907– 1913), under Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin (1910–1912). Contributed to exhibitions (from 1910). Contributed to the exhibitions of the students of Léon Bakst and Mstislav Dobuzhinsky (1910); 1915 (1915); 4th State Exhibition of Paintings (1918– 1919); Association of Graphic Artists, Moscow House of Printing (1926–1928); International Exhibition in Venice (1928); Socialist Construction in Soviet Art (1930–1931); Artists of the RSFSR Over 15 Years (1933) and many others. Member and exhibitor of the World of Art (1912–1917); Free Workshops (1917); Fire-Colour (1924–1929). In collaboration with Alexei Tolstoy and Maximillian Voloshin contributed to completion of Aristarkh Lentulov’s decorative design of the Bubny literary and music café in Koktebel (1912).

Taught at the Nadezhda Krupskaya House of Folk Art in Moscow (1930s). Executed designs for Gosizdat, Museum of New Western Art. During the war, she was evacuated to Ivanovo; lived in poverty. Experienced difficulties in returning to Moscow (a draft of her letter to Alexei Tolstoy asking for help has been preserved). In a letter dated 30 December 1914 to the famous artist Konstantin Kandaurov, with whom she was personally and artistically connected for many years, Yulia Obolenskaya writes: “My ‘winter’ has ended, i.e., the self-portrait with windows. An amusing thing – there is something enchanted about it – some kind of internal content that has nothing to do with me.” (L. Alexeeva. “Tsvet vinograda. O Yulii Obolenskoi i Konstantine Kandaurove. http: //sites.utoronto.ca/tsq. Toronto Slavic Quarterly. 2009–2014. Nos. 29, 32, 35, 41, 43, 49).