Natalia Bessarabova
Bessarabova, Natal’ia Ivanovna
Born Aug. 19 (31), 1895, in Voronezh. Soviet ceramic artist.
Bessarabova studied in the Voronezh State Higher Arts and Technical Studios (1919–22). From 1944 to 1955 she worked in the ceramic studios of the Institute of Industrial Art in Moscow. She helped bring about a revival of Gzhel’ and Skopin ceramic art. By studying the traditions of these crafts she created samples of household articles and of sculptures from porcelain, majolica, and terracotta (kept in the Museum of Folk Art and the Museum of History in Moscow and in the Russian Museum in Leningrad). She also worked as a theater set designer, designing F. Z. Iarullin’s ballet Shurale for the Tatar Theater of Opera and Ballet in Kazan in 1945.