[Saint Petersburg: Autolithographs].

Komitet Pop.Khud. Izd., Skt. Peterburg, 1922. . Landscape folio (31.3 x 41 cm). Half-title, title, [4] pp., table of contents with 2 lithographs, 12 lithograph plates all signed in the plate. Original printed wrappers; inscriptions on the front cover, small repairs. Preserved in a modern black folding box. An excellent example.
Limited Edition. One of 400 Copies.

A fresh example of this artistic record of the Russian Northern capital at a major turn in its history: just after the Revolution and the year when it officially lost its status as a capital of the new country. Ostroumova-Lebedeva (1871-1955) studied in Russia with Ilya Repin and worked in the studio of James McNeill Whistler in Paris. It was while studying the techniques of watercolour under Leon Bakst that she followed him as a member of the Mir Iskusstva [World of Art] group. She became a gifted printmaker and is best remembered for her panoramic studies of St. Petersburg as in this famous suite of autolithographs with an introduction by Benois, a founding member of Mir Iskusstva. Benois writes in his introduction that in order to judge the city completely one can disregard all previous paintings, watercolours, photographs and engravings and need only look at this album. Although Saint Petersburg had lost its status as nation's capital city these views present the city in all its poetic and majestic glory. The artist manages to capture not just the beauty of the city's monuments and broad canals but also its stately soul which rose from the swamp.