Figure 1.-- Elisaveta Bem is one of the best-loved illustrators from Tsarist Russia who concentrated on water colors. Her best-remembered work is of children, primarily serf childern. She alsp loved to do animals. Here best known works are those done as postcards.

Elisaveta Merkuryevna Bem (Елизавета Меркурьевна Бём / Elisabeth Bohm ) was a Russian illustrator who is best known for creating postcards during tecTsarist era. She was born in Saint Petersburg to an aristocratic family with both Russian and Tatar roots--Endaurov (Эндауров). She was rised on the estate of her parents which was located near Schiptsy, a village in Poshekhonsky uezd, Yaroslavl Governorate. This was the era before emancipation. She was thus intimately familiar with rural and serf life. She would have played with serf children. She enrolled in the School of Painting at the Society for Promotion of Artists (Школа Поощрения Художеств) when she was only 14 years old (1857). This was a highly unusual step for a girl in highly traditional Russian society, let alone a child of her age. There she studied under Ivan Kramskoi and Pavel Chistyakov. Elisaveta graduated with the Large Silver Medal (1865). She then continued her art education through private lessons from Kramskoi. She studied further at the Imperial Academy of Arts, receiving a Large Encouragement Medal for animal paintings. Elisabeth married Russian-Hungarian violinist Ludwig Bohm/Bem. He was an important violinist and professor of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. She did a great deal of work in water colors. She became known for illustrating children books published by the Folk Library (Народная библиотека). As a result of her work there she met famed writer Leo Tolstoy. While best known for her water colors, she began experimented with glass and ceramics and acquired considerable aclaim. Sge was awarded medals at the World Fairs in Chicago (1893), Paris (1900), Munich (1902), and Milan (1906). At Milan she was awarded a gold medal. But it is for postcards she is best known in Russia today. She is one of the most prominent Russian creator of postcards during the Tsarist era. She is known to have created more than 350 postcards. They were printed by the St. Eugenia Welfare Society (Благотоворительное Общество Святой Евгении). Here style is very destinctive. Here mos prized works today are her impages of serf children. Her rather nostalgic sentimental style was highly appreciated in Tsarist Russia. Her work may have been supessed during the Stalinist era, but we do not yet have details on this.

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Created: 6:48 PM 2/21/2009
Last updated: 6:48 PM 2/21/2009