NATALIA GONCHAROVA (1881-1962) Two riders

signed 'N. Gontcharova' (lower right), dedicated in pencil in Cyrillic 'Miloy Marii Ivanovne ot N Goncharovoy 8 oct. 1921' [To the dear Maria Ivanovna from M. Gontcharova, October 8th 1923] (on passepartout) gouache on paper 20 x 26.5 cm executed circa 1923 Provenance: Maria Ivanovna Olovyanishnikova (1878-1948) and Lithuanian symbolist poet Jurgis Baltrusaitis (1873-1944) Maria Ivanovna (1878-1948) was born into a family of renowned merchants and industrialists; she was the daughter of Ivan Porfirievich Olovyanishnikov (1846-1898) and Evpraksiia Georgievna Goroshkova (1851-1925). Her father ran a prestigious workshop that supplied the Russian Imperial Court. In 1899, Maria married the well-known poet of the "Silver Age," Jurgis Baltrusaitis (1873-1944), who developed close connections with many writers and artists of the time, including Anton Chekhov, Konstantin Balmont, Valery Bryusov, Maksim Gorky, Mikhail Vrubel, Aleksandr Scriabin, Boris Pasternak, and Mstislav Dobuzinskij, etc. Baltrušaitis served as the ambassador of the Lithuanian Republic in Moscow from 1920 to 1939. In 1939, he and his family relocated to Paris. All of Baltrušaitis's poetic works were dedicated to Maria, who passed away in Paris. Their son, Jurgis (1903-1988), pursued a career as an art historian and resided in Paris.