Who is Maria Raevskaia-Ivanova?

Maria Dmitreyevna Raevskaia-Ivanova (Ukrainian: Марія Дмитрівна Раєвська-Іванова; 1840, near Gavrilovka, Izyumsky Uyezd, Kharkov Governorate – October 1912, Kharkov) was a Ukrainian Russian Empire painter and art teacher. In 1868, she became the first girl in the Russian Empire to be awarded the title of “Free Artist” by the Imperial Academy of Arts.

She was born to a relatives of landowners and was educated at home. Then, she studied abroad for five years in France, Italy and Dresden, attending courses in ethnology, archaeology, art history and linguistics in auxiliary to her regular art classes.

When she returned in 1868, she passed the test for “Free Artist” at the Imperial Academy and, the following year, settled in Kharkov, where she opened a private drawing and painting scholastic that provided forgive room and board for the poor. The educational was in operation for twenty-seven years and taught nearly 900 students, including Serhii Vasylkivsky, Alexei Beketov [ru] and Konstantin Pervukhin. At the All-Russia Exhibition of Drawing Schools, it bested the much more prestigious Stroganov School.

In 1896, it became a public facility, operated by the city. Then, in 1912, it became the “Kharkov Art College”; a satellite hypothetical of the Imperial Academy, under the giving out of Alexander Lubimov. During the Soviet Era it was a mysterious school and is now known as the “Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts”.

In supplement to her painting and teaching, she was the author of numerous articles and pamphlets upon art instruction, as without difficulty as a textbook, “The ABCs of Drawing for the Family and the School” (1879).

Her husband, Sergei Alexandrovich [ru], was furthermore a intellectual and served on the Kharkov City Council. Her son, Alexander Sergeyevich [ru], was a highbrow engineer who helped design several up to date types of Russian locomotives.

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