The Professional and the Familial in Everyday Life of Russian 1850s – 1900s Women Artists

The article analyzes the daily life of the first recognized women artists in Russia in the second half of the 19th century - early 20th century. The authors’ goal is to reconstruct the complex combination of women’s professional activities in the field of art with family responsibilities and sociocultural expectations of that time, to identify key aspects that influenced the life and work of female artists of that period (availability of professional education, the opportunity to participate in the artistic life of the country, relationships with colleagues, family and sib ties). Basing their conclusions on the analysis of published memoirs and archival materials of the State Tretyakov Gallery and the Russian State Archive of Literature, some of which were introduced into scientific circulation for the first time, the authors came to the conclusion that the possibility of combining professional and family was strongly influenced by the age of the artists, the late birth of their first child, and a limited number of children in general, delaying marriage until success in the arts, or the presence of kinship support in family.