Maria Yakunchikova

Painter, engraver, applied artist, illustrator. Sister-in-law of Vasily Polenov. Born in Wiesbaden to Russian merchant and collector Vasily Yakunchikov and his wife Zinaida Mamontova (1870). Took private painting lessons from Nikolai Martynov (from 1883) and Elena Polenova (1886–89) and studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (1885–89) and under William-Adolphe Bouguereau and Tony Robert-Fleury at the Académie Julian in Paris (1889–94). Advised to move abroad after contracting tuberculosis (1888). Visited Austria and Italy (1888) and France and Germany (1889). Lived and worked in Paris (from 1889), frequently visiting Russia (1890s). Took up coloured etching (1892). Married a Swiss-Russian medical student at the Sorbonne called Léon Weber-Bauler (1896) and gave birth to two sons (1898, 1901). Member of the Abramtsevo circle, where she headed the embroidery workshop after the death of Elena Polenova (1898). Illustrated books (from 1897), designed textiles and toys (from 1898) and the cover of the World of Art magazine (1899). Died of tuberculosis at her home in Ch?ne-Bougeries near Geneva (1902). Contributed to exhibitions (from 1886). Contributed to the Salon du Champ de Mars (1893, 1894, 1897), Exhibition of Experiences of Artistic Creativity (1896), Moscow Society of Lovers of the Arts (1898), Exhibition of Russian and Finnish Artists (1898), World of Art (1899–1902), 36 Artists (1901, 1902), Exposition Universelle in Paris (1900, silver medal) and posthumous one-woman shows at the second Union of Russian Artists exhibition in Moscow (1905) and the Musée Rath in Geneva (1910).