Tenisheva, Mariia

Born May 20 (June 1), 1867, in St. Petersburg; died Apr. 14, 1928, in St. Cloud, near Paris. Prominent figure in Russian art. Patron of the arts, collector, and artist. Wife of V. N. Tenishev.

Tenisheva, after studying art in St. Petersburg and Paris, organized and funded schools of drawing in St. Petersburg (1894–1904) and Smolensk (1896–1899). She founded the Museum of Russian Antiquity in Smolensk, now part of the S. T. Konenkov Smolensk Museum of Fine and Applied Art. Tenisheva’s estate, Talashkino, was an important art center in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Beginning in 1919, Tenisheva lived abroad.