NADEZHDA VLADIMIROVNA LERMONTOVA (1885–1921) Costume Design for Prince Gvidon from Alexander Pushkin’s The Tale of Tsar Saltan

signed in Cyrillic ‘N. Lermontova’ (lower right), inscribed in Cyrillic ‘Gvidon’ (upper right), with an expert’s inscription dated 1918 watercolour and pencil on paper laid on board 27 × 18 cm (sheet), 43 × 30 cm (board) executed circa 1910s Nadezhda Lermontova was a painter and theatre artist, and a great-niece of the poet Mikhail Lermontov. She studied at the Bestuzhev Courses and later trained under Dmitry Kardovsky and Léon Bakst. From 1911, she exhibited widely, including with Soyuz Molodezhi (1912–13) and Mir Iskusstva. Together with Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, she contributed to mural paintings in the church at Ovruch, Ukraine, and worked as a theatre designer in St Petersburg. By around 1910, Lermontova had developed a distinctive style combining Art Nouveau with elements of Symbolism, Expressionism and Primitivism. In her later years, she produced paintings, book illustrations and stage designs, including for the ballet Zolotoe Runo by Sergei Solovyov. She died in St Petersburg in 1921 at the age of 36.