Nadezhda Dobychina (1884–1950) was a gallery owner, curator, museum worker, and art collector. She played an important role in the culture of pre-revolutionary and the Soviet Russia and continued to work during times of war and revolution, acting as a link in a «time out of joint.» This makes her a key figure for understanding the history of art in the first half of the twentieth century.
She was the object of malicious gossip during her lifetime, accused of greed and multiple love affairs. Alexander Benois, Maxim Gorky, Nicholas Roerich, Igor Grabar, Sergei Prokofiev, and Viacheslav Karatygin all approached her for advice. Drawing on Dobychina’s archive, Olga Muromtseva has reconstructed the biography of the gallery owner and some of the little-known events in Russian art history of the twentieth century. The book contains previously unpublished excerpts from her diaries, letters, and memoirs about Nikolai Kulbin, Alexander Benois, and Igor Grabar and her reflections on the artists of the socialist era. The illustrations include artworks that were shown at Dobychina’s exhibitions or were part of her collection, archival photographs, and portraits of her contemporaries.
