Elena Mrozovskaya facts for kids
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Elena Lukinichna Mrozovskaya (also known as Helène de Mrosovsky), born Knyazhevich, was an important photographer from the Russian Empire and later the Soviet Union. She was active from around 1892 until 1941. Her family had roots in Montenegro.
Life and Early Career
Elena Mrozovskaya had a brother, Vladimir Pavlovich Mrozovsky, who was an engineer and an artist. Her uncle, Iosif Ivanovich Mrozovsky, became a high-ranking military official in Moscow from 1915 to 1917.
Elena herself first worked as a teacher and a sales clerk. She became interested in photography and studied it at the Russian Technical Society, finishing her studies in 1892. She then traveled to Paris to learn even more from a very famous photographer named Nadar.
When she returned to St. Petersburg, she opened her own photography studio in 1894. Later in the 1920s, she lived in Serovo, a district of St. Petersburg. She passed away in 1941 in Repino, another district of St. Petersburg.
Her Photography Work
Mrozovskaya took photos of many famous people of her time. These included the composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, the ballerina Mathilde Kschessinska, and the actress Vera Komissarzhevskaya. She also photographed other artists, writers, and actors.
Starting in 1896, she took pictures inside the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, a famous music school. These photos are some of the first ever taken of the conservatory's interior. In 1897, she was officially named the conservatory's photographer.
Elena Mrozovskaya won several awards for her work. She received a bronze medal at an exhibition in Stockholm in 1897. She also won a silver medal at a big world fair in Paris in 1900. She also showed her photos at an international exhibition in Liège in 1905.
Where Her Photos Are Kept
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One of her most famous photos is a picture of Princess Olga Orlova. This photo was colored by hand and shows the princess wearing a kokoshnik, which is a traditional Russian headpiece. She wore it to a fancy ball at the Winter Palace in 1903. This photo is now part of the collection at the Hermitage Museum. In 2003, it was sent to London for an exhibit celebrating St. Petersburg's 300th anniversary.
Another one of her hand-colored photos, called "Portrait of girl in Little Russia costume," is kept at the Moscow House of Photography. This photo was shown in an exhibit in Amsterdam in 2013.
Many of Mrozovskaya's photographs are also kept at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. Several more are in the collection of the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art.
