Yelena Polenova

Yelena Dmitrievna Polenova (Russian: Елена Дмитриевна Поленова; 15 November 1850 – 7 November 1898) was a Russian painter and graphic artist in the Art Nouveau style. She was one of the first illustrators of children's books in the Russian Empire. Her brother was the landscape painter Vasily Polenov.

Biography She was born in Saint Petersburg. Most of her family members were involved in artistic or scientific pursuits. Her father, Dmitriy Vasilevich Polenov, was a historian and diplomat who served as a Privy Councilor. She was raised on the family estates in Olonets Governorate and Tambov Governorate. Her mother, Maria, a writer of children's stories and an amateur artist, provided her first drawing lessons. Beginning in 1859, she and her siblings all received lessons from Pavel Chistyakov.

From 1870 to 1877, she worked in Chistyakov's studios, then took classes in watercolors and ceramics at the Imperial Society, through 1880, with a break when she and her sister were volunteers in a hospital during the Russo-Turkish War. She fell in love with a doctor there, but her family was opposed to marriage. Together with Viktor Hartmann, Viktor Vasnetsov and others, she helped make Abramtsevo the center of the Arts and Crafts movement in Russia.

In 1886, she made her first illustrations for twenty folk tales collected by Alexander Afanasyev. Although "War of the Mushrooms" (1889) were the only ones published during her lifetime,

After 1893, she spent less time at Abramtsevo and concentrated on designing embroideries, wallpaper, ceramics and other craft pieces. Always a lover of music, she claimed to have "color hearing"; that listening to music made her see ornamental designs.

In April 1896, while riding in a cab on Tsvetnoy Boulevard, her carriage's wheels got caught in the tram rails and overturned. She was seriously injured when her head hit the pavement. Complications from this accident would result in her death over two years later.

In her memory, her brothers established an award of 300 Rubles, to be presented to promising young artists so they could study abroad. Among those who received the award were Konstantin Bogaevsky and Yeghishe Tadevosyan.