Vera Mikhailovna Ermolaeva (1893–1937) — Russian painter, graphic artist, and illustrator.
Born into a landowning family, Ermolaeva received her education in Paris and Lausanne. She graduated from Princess Obolenskaya’s Gymnasium in St. Petersburg in 1910 and from the Archaeological Institute in 1917. She studied in M. Bernstein’s studio and was a member of the Futurist circle “Bloodless Murder” as well as the art associations “Freedom to Art” and “Art and Revolution.”
She collaborated with the Segodnya (Today) artel publishing house, where she illustrated three books: Mice (Myshata) and The Rooster (Petukh) by Natan Vengrov, and Pioneers by Walt Whitman.
After the Revolution, she worked as a theater artist, creating stage designs for Mikhail Matyushin and Aleksei Kruchenykh’s opera Victory over the Sun. In 1919, she joined the Vitebsk People’s Art School as an instructor and, two years later, became its rector. Together with Kazimir Malevich, she helped organize UNOVIS (Affirmers of the New Art).
In 1922, Ermolaeva returned to Petrograd (now St. Petersburg), where she headed the Color Laboratory at the State Institute of Artistic Culture. In the late 1920s, she worked as an illustrator for the children’s magazines Sparrow (Vorobey), The New Robinson (Novy Robinzon), Chizh (Siskin), and Yozh (Hedgehog).
In 1934, she was arrested and sentenced for “anti-Soviet activity.” She was executed in a labor camp near Karaganda in 1937.
Vera Ermolaeva was posthumously rehabilitated on September 20, 1989.
Original title: Собачки This book was both written and illustrated by Vera Mikhailovna Ermolaeva (1893–1937), one of the most remarkable figures of the Russian avant-garde. A practicing artist as well as a leading theorist, she headed the Laboratory of Color at the State Institute of Artistic Culture (GINKhUK) in Petrograd, […]
