Natalia Goncharova (Russian, 1881-1962)

Integral to the Jack of Diamonds group, a radical figure in the Russian avant-garde, a spectacular set and costume designer for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, Natalia Goncharova (also Nathalie Gontcharova, Russian: Наталья Сергеевна Гончарова) was one of the most important 20th-century Russian artists. Goncharova was born in Tula, a town in western Russian around 200 kilometres south of Moscow. Her family relocated to Moscow in 1892, intending to improve their financial situation. Goncharova studied history, biology, and botany at school, but she finally opted to pursue art and enrolled in the Moscow Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in 1898. At the institute, she met Mikhail Larionov, a famous Russian avant-gardist who would become her lifelong companion. Their lives and practices progressed in unison, with each guiding and encouraging the other as they ventured into new artistic territory.