Video: Memories of a Russian Lady
Memories of a Russian Lady was published in 1986 by Thames & Hudson in London. This illustrator book is a book by russian illustrator Marianne V. Memoirs of Mariamna Davydoff.
Library Magazine commented on the illustrated book: "The story and the picture are perfectly matched, sharing nostalgia for the simplicity and sadness of the old times, while vividly presenting a kind of life and leisure." The details of watercolors are combined with whimsy. ”
Born in 1871, Davidov fled Russia in 1917 and immigrated to France. She lived in France until 1949, after which she moved to the United States, where she died in 1961.
In this illustrated book, she uses words and brushes to recall the bits and pieces of her childhood, mainly to let future generations know about the family life in Tsarist Russia in the last decades. In fact, we have gained a certain understanding of the society of that time through the works of writers such as Turgenev and Chekhov, and the first-hand pictorial materials created by Davidov are complementary to the social life of that time. This illustrated book has country estates, extended families addicted to sports and all kinds of recreational pastimes, scenes from the Easter and Christmas holidays, to summer heat and winter frost.
Davidov, who had studied painting and was already an accomplished illustrator before fleeing Russia, had to leave behind all her watercolors and drawings when she left Russia in a hurry. Unfortunately, all of these works left in Russia were destroyed, but fortunately, her works in France have been preserved intact to this day.
Cui Ying: Journalist, documentary filmmaker, columnist, PhD of the University of Edinburgh, loves walking and literature, likes to collect old illustration books from all over the world, and has published books such as "British Illustrators" and "British Illustration Book Collection".
Author: Cui Ying
Editor: Jiang Chuting
Editor-in-Charge: Zhu Zifen
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