Anna Ostroumova-Lebedeva

• In these posts I am trying to include female artists from different periods as well as from different countries, so from the Tudor court we are moving to cold Russia, to St. Petersburg, the city of white nights perpetuated in the works of Anna Ostroumova-Lebedeva.
• This Russian artist and printmaker (born St Petersburg, 17th May 1871 - died St. Petersburg, 5th May 1955) was a somewhat tragic person, considering the fact that she wasn't able to paint with oil due to her allergies to it causing severe asthma attacks. In a way, that “handicap” turned her artistic pursuits towards the graphic arts, both monochromatic and colour, making her responsible for a revival of woodcutting techniques in Russia.
• She was a well educated artist, learning new techniques and always improving herself. Anna's education was a rather impressive one: she studied at the Stieglitz School of Technical Drawing supervised by Professor Vasily Mathé from 1889-1892; then in 1892 she started attending general classes at the Academy of Arts, and was tutored by Ilya Repin from 1896-1898. In 1898-99 she worked at the studio of the American painter James Whistler, and that of Karmen Rossi in Paris; she also perfected her watercolour technique at E. Zvantzeva's school under Léon Bakst in St. Petersburg. Anna also taught as a professor at the High Institute of Photography and Photo-technique in St. Petersburg (1918-1921), and at the Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture attached to the All-Russian Academy of Arts (1934-1935).
• She joined the World of Art group in 1899 and in 1900 she first exhibited her engraving at the World of Art show; from then on she was closely connected to this art movement. Ostroumova was also a member of the Academy of Arts (USSR) from 1949.
• Anna's work consisted of mostly historical landscapes of the Baroque and Neoclassical architecture of St. Petersburg as in the series: St. Petersburg (1908-10) and Pavlovsk (1922-23), and very few portraits. The other motifs of her many engravings, woodcuts and watercolours are the impressions from her travels abroad with her husband Sergei Lebedev to Italy, France, Holland, Belgium, Spain and Germany.

Above: St. Petersburg. Krukov Chanel (coloured woodcut), 1910
Under: Amsterdam (watercolour on paper)


Left: Venice (charcoal on paper), 1911
Right: Portrait of N.N. Yevreinova (watercolour on cardboard), 1927

• Her art-pieces are, indeed, rather “impressionistic” ones; strokes on watercolours are fast, short, aiming to seize the moment, clearly visible on Red Pillars (1922), where the war with the ever changing, ever flowing water and the artists brush is taking place; even the more “restrained” woodcuts reveal such a nature, of presenting the moment, the very core of the scene, the time of the day etc., with simplified lines of presented objects and clearly defined parts of rather “stable” composition. The colour palette of woodcuts is moderate, and somewhat “limited” to earthy hues, while watercolours allow the employment of more colourful ones – not necessarily the influence of different surroundings and cultures (even though clearly the matter of different media), but it's hard to omit the striking, vivid colours of Segovia. View of Alkasar (1915), if we exclude the heavy, dark portions also present.

Above: Petrograd. Red Pilars (watercolour on paper), 1922
Under: Segovia. View of Alkasar (gouache on paper pasted on canvas), 1915

• What fascinates me about Anna Ostroumova is her insatiable passion for self-improvement and her curiosity which led her to learning various media and therefore progress in her never-ending ambition for spiritual fulfilment as an artist and finally, as a human being.
• But, Anna's achievements didn't remain only on her own spiritual satisfaction, for she received many awards: a medal at the Paris International Exhibition of 1937 for her engravings, titles of Honoured Art Worker of the RSFSR (Russian Federation) in 1942, and the title of the Peoples Artist of the RSFSR in 1946.