Born: 1877 St Petersburg, Russian Empire (now Russia)
Died: 1963 London, England
Year of Migration to the UK: 1937
Other name/s: Elisabeth Tcheremissinov , Elisabeth Tscheremisinov, Elisabeth Tcheremissinof, Yelizaveta Cheremisinova
Biography
Artist Elizaveta Petrovna Cheremisinova (also known as Elisabeth Tcheremissinof or Tscheremisinoff) was born on 9 February 1877 in St Petersburg, Russia. A sculptor, portrait medallist, occasional painter, and formerly a skilled leatherworker, she came from a distinguished family of Russian aristocratic heritage. On her mother’s side, she was descended from Cornish engineers—notably her grandfather, Frederick William Trewheller, who helped build Russia’s railway infrastructure and designed sluices, bridges, and parts of the Peterhof Palace layout. Raised in a cultivated household between central St Petersburg and the Peterhof, Cheremisinova was educated at the elite Smolny Institute for Noble Maidens, completing her studies in 1895. Following this, she travelled widely—to Egypt, Italy, France, and beyond—absorbing a range of artistic influences. Her first recognition came through leatherwork and bookbinding, which she exhibited in Vienna in 1903–4 and at the St Louis World’s Fair in America in 1904. Her craftsmanship attracted the attention of Empress Maria Feodorovna, who acquired one of her bindings. By 1905, however, Cheremisinova had shifted her attention to sculpture, training in Vienna under Arthur Strasser, and in Paris, where she studied at the Académie Colarossi, possibly under Henri Gauquié. Her early sculptural work was exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1909, and she joined the Society of Women Artists in Austria, maintaining a studio in Vienna. She also developed ties with the Kinsky family, aristocratic patrons who would resurface in her later London years. She maintained ties to Russia, submitting a design for a monument to Empress Maria Feodorovna in 1911–12 and continued to work there until the upheavals of the First World War and the Russian Revolution.
In 1917, on the advice of Count Ichirō Motono, the Japanese ambassador and a family friend, she moved to Tokyo, Japan. There she flourished artistically, exhibiting in the prestigious Bunten and Teiten exhibitions and working among Japan’s cultural elite. She was the only European artist selected for the second and third Bunten exhibitions, where she exhibited portrait busts of Count Motono and Hachirōjirō Mitsui. She also taught music and languages at the progressive Bunka Gakuin school and became a notable presence among foreign artists in early 20th-century Japan. In 1919 she created a relief portrait of the educator Jinzō Naruse, which was reproduced in plaster copies and distributed among graduates of the Japanese Women’s University. After several productive years in Japan, Cheremisinova likely left in the aftermath of the 1923 Great Kantō Earthquake. For the next decade, she moved across Central Europe, with periods spent in Austria and Czechoslovakia. Her circle during this time remained aristocratic and international.
Cheremisinova settled in London by 1937, marking the beginning of the final and significant phase of her career. From a flat at 5 Nevern Road in Earl’s Court—an area then known for its Russian émigré community—she submitted works to the Royal Academy of Arts, including a tempera portrait of Count Kinsky and a bust of an unidentified sitter. That year, she also completed a large pastel of Risaldar Major Lall Singh, MBE, an Indian cavalry officer present in London for the Coronation of HM King George VI. In 1937 and 1938, she exhibited several works at the Royal Society of Miniature Painters, and in May 1938 she mounted a solo exhibition at the Renaissance Galleries on Lower Regent Street. This included 77 works—sculptures, portraits, and landscapes from her travels—demonstrating the range and depth of her practice. Some works depicted locations in Austria and Czechoslovakia, suggesting her continued connection with central Europe. Perhaps her most notable UK work was a lead bust of Montague John Rendall, former Headmaster of Winchester College. Although Rendall initially sat reluctantly, the sculpture was well received at the 1938 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and was later accepted by the College. It now resides in the College museum, where it is associated with Rendall’s efforts to develop its collection of sculpture. In a 1939 letter, Rendall recalled the financial difficulties Cheremisinova faced, noting that she shared a studio in Kensington with Vera Wolkoff, wife of the last Imperial Russian naval attaché in London, and that both women were in ‘sore’ need of support (Art UK).
Cheremisinova remained in London during the war and into her later years. In 1939 she was living at 80 Warwick Gardens in Kensington with her niece, Ekaterina Petroff, herself a painter and a naturalised British citizen by 1952. In her final years, Cheremisinova lived at 9 Porchester Square, Bayswater. Elizaveta Cheremisinova died in Bayswater, London, England on 8 February 1963, the day before what would have been her 86th birthday. The following year, her life and work were commemorated in a BBC Radio Home Service broadcast titled 'Memoir of a Russian Lady: Elisabeth Tcheremissinov '(1964)—a rare public recognition of her long and international career.
Related books
- 'Radio', Sheerness Times Guardian, 21 August 1964, p. 3
- 'The Royal Academy', Times, 9 May 1938, p. 8
Related organisations
- Académie Colarossi (student)
- Russian Art Industrial Society (member)
- Smolny Institute for Noble Maidens, St Petersburg (student)
- Society of Women Artists in Austria (Vereinigung bildender Künstlerinnen Österreichs) (member)
Related web links
- Biography of Cheremisinova in Russian, Dzen
- Royal Academy of Arts, Summer Exhibitions
- 'What More Could be Established About the Russian Sculptor Yelizaveta Cheremisinova?', Art Detective, Art UK https://www.artuk.org/artdetective/discussions/discussions/what-more-could-be-established-about-the-russian-sculptor-yelizaveta-cheremisinova)
Selected exhibitions
- Solo exhibition, Renaissance Galleries, London (1938)
- Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London (1938, 1937)
- Royal Society of Miniature Painters, Sculptors and Gravers, London (1938, 1937)
