Maria Raevska-Ivanova

Maria Dmitriyvna Raevska-Ivanova (; , , Izyumsky Uyezd, Kharkov Governorate – , in Kharkiv) was a Ukrainian painter and art teacher. In 1868 she became the first woman in the Russian Empire to be awarded the title of "Free Artist" by the Imperial Academy of Arts.

Biography Maria Dmytrivna Raevska-Ivanova was born into a landowner's family in the village of , Izyumsky Uyezd, Kharkov Governorate, which was founded by her grandfather Gavrilo Ivanov at the end of the 18th century. The family was engaged in and earned their living from agriculture. Her father, Dmytro Ivanov, followed in his grandfather's footsteps, becoming a military man. Since she could not get an education at the Imperial Academy of Arts (St. Petersburg; the only art educational institution in the Russian Empire at that time) because she was a woman, she studied at home and engaged in self-education. She studied in Dresden with professors Ludwig Erhardt and Anton Dietrich. She studied German language and literature. In 1869, she returned to Kharkiv, she borrowed 500 rubles from her mother to organize art classes and publish their opening in Kharkiv newspapers. The school taught painting, drawing, drafting, sculpture, porcelain painting, wood burning, leather embossing, and theatrical scenery painting.

Since the opening of the school, the trustee of the Kharkiv educational district, active state councilor, founder of the city literacy society, craft school, one of the organizers of the People's House taught for free. thumb The building that housed the art school of Raevska-Ivanova from 1877 to 1896 Because the school was charitable, students studied for free, and only a few wealthy families paid 12 rubles, the school was constantly plagued by financial problems. In the 1880s, the Kharkiv City Council began to allocate 200 rubles annually to the school, which covered only a small part of the expenses.

The school she created operated for twenty-seven years and taught about 900 students, including Serhii Vasylkivsky, Oleksiy Beketov, Henryk Siemiradzki, Vladimir Beklemishev, Vasyl Yermylov, Kostyantyn Pervukhin and many others. In 1912, the school became the "Kharkiv Art School"; a satellite school of the Imperial Academy under the direction of Alexander Lubimov. For the school in the same year on Kaplunivska Street (now (Art Street)), a new building was built. The author of the project is architect . The architect designed the facade in the , which was protested by pro-Russian politicians of the time.

Completely blind, she taught until the end of her life.

Some paintings by Maria Dmytrivna Raevska Ivanova were exhibited at the Kharkiv Art Museum, which was closed after a Russian missile hit in 2022.

On October 7, 2021, a monument to the artist and educator Maria Raevska-Ivanova was unveiled in front of the modern school building (now the Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts) on . The monument was created according to the project of Nelya Vytvytska, which she made in 1998. The Minister of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine Oleksandr Tkachenko was present at the opening of the monument. After the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the monument was temporarily dismantled to protect it from shelling. The monument has now been returned to its place.

Works Several paintings (oils and watercolors) by Maria are known, created under the influence of academicism:

Self-portrait (1866) "Death of a Peasant in Ukraine" (1868) "Girl by the Fence" "Rural landscape" "Still life" Self-portrait with a model (circa 1882)

Author of the textbook "The Alphabet of Drawing for Family and School" (1879) and the manuals "To the Regulations of Ornamental Elements" (1896), "Experience of a Program for Teaching Drawing in Sunday Classes for Craftsmen" (1895).