Meet Her!

Meet her! Epstein. Elizaveta Ivanovna Epstein.

Born in the Russian Empire in 1879. She received her artistic education in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, where she worked in private studios and attended classes at the Academy of Arts. She studied under Leonid Pasternak. At the beginning of the twentieth century she continued her training in Paris, at the Académie Colarossi and in other independent studios frequented by many foreign artists.

In 1904 she settled in France. She lived in Paris, chiefly in the Montparnasse quarter, where a large colony of Russian artists and men of letters had by then formed. She assembled a small salon, which was frequented by Alexandra Exter, Sonia Delaunay, Olga Meerson and Anna Zherebtsova.

She attended Matisse's classes. Her studio stood not far from the boulevard Raspail. Within the émigré milieu she kept up ties with representatives of the so-called School of Paris, associated with Russian artists and writers, and took part in the cultural life of the Russian diaspora.

In Paris Epstein exhibited at the Salon d'Automne and the Salon des Indépendants. Her works were shown in private galleries and at exhibitions of Russian art abroad. Besides France, Epstein's paintings were displayed in other European countries. In the pre-war period she took part in group exhibitions of Russian émigrés, where she presented mainly portraits and intimate compositions.

For many years she was on friendly terms with Kandinsky and corresponded with him at length. She became the prototype of the heroine of a novella by Thomas Mann.

The portrait occupied the central place in her work. She painted representatives of the émigré intelligentsia, artists, musicians and members of her own family. Her life in Paris passed amid constant labour and involvement in artistic associations. During the Second World War she remained in France. She died in Paris in 1956.