Zhukova Vera Ivanovna
Circa 1890, St Petersburg (?) – after 1918, Petrograd (?)
Painter. Studied under Léon Bakst, Mstislav Dobuzhinsky and Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin at Elizaveta Zvantseva’s School of Art (late 1900s – early 1910s). Member of the Free Studio Society (1917) and SORABIS (1918). Sister of the scientist and physicist Ivan Zhukov (1880–1949) who received the Mendeleev Prize of the Russian Society of Physics and Chemistry at the age of 28; later – corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. “And then there was Vera Zhukova. Her appearance was somewhat strange – she wore trousers and styled and cut her hair like a boy’s (back when it was not common), and always had a cigarette between her lips… She was intelligent and had received a broad education. It is assumed that N. L. liked her because she could discuss various philosophical topics, and also because she was an avid supporter of equal rights for women – two qualities that were sorely lacking in all of the other artists she knew.” (Private archive. A. V. Lermontova, “Biografiya N. V. Lermontovoi. p. 16)* * The person in the photograph is presumed to be Vera Zhukova