Person    | Female 

Maria Volkova

Categories: Craft / Design

The National Gallery leaflet describes Volkova as Anrep's sister in law. But this Imago photo of Anrep and Volkova at the completed 'Awakening of the Muses', is captioned: "Maria Volkova - the only woman mosaic artist in the world - is assisting her cousin Mr Boris Anrep with his remarkable floor decorations at the National Gallery ...".

Find a Grave describes the relationship between Anrep and Volkova in quite different terms: "During this period of his life he divorced his wife, married Helen Maitland, by whom he already had two children and met Maria Volkova – his companion for many years on, which resulted in his wife leaving him for Roger Fry. ... When Maria Volkova died, he settled with Maud Russell ..." 

This suggests to us that the "sister in law" "mosaic artist" and "cousin" were all inventions to explain why this woman was spending so much time in the company of Anrep, a married man.

Looking for more information on Volkova we found the Wikipedia page for Vera Volkova (1905-75) a Russian ballet dancer and expatriate dance teacher, but that page has no mention of Anrep nor of a Maria, so maybe there is no connection.

In this photo Volkova is resting on a walking stick and looking away while Anrep closely examines the Muse mosaic floor. If she really was a mosaic artist her lack of interest is surprising. Note also: just to the right of Anrep's foot you can make out the dark hair of one of the Muses - that's Urania/Volkova.  (We don't know but think the black lines may be physical damage to the photograph.)

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This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Maria Volkova

Commemorated ati

Muses - Urania

Maria Volkova as Urania the muse of astronomy.

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Other Subjects

George James & Sons

George James & Sons

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1 memorial
William Caslon IV

William Caslon IV

In 1816 produced the first sans-serif printing type. Great grandson of William Caslon I.

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1 memorial
The King's Road

The King's Road

It derives its name from the fact that It was King Charles II’s private road to Kew and wasn’t opened to the general public until 1830. Mary Quant opened her shop ‘Bazaar’ here in 1955. Along with ...

Place, Commerce, Craft / Design, Royalty, Transport

1 memorial
AOP, Another Orkney Production

AOP, Another Orkney Production

We know that AOP produced the Jellicoe plaques in c.2017, but apart from that we can find nothing. At a guess - they produce things and they are based in Orkney.

Group, Craft / Design, Scotland

1 memorial
William de Morgan

William de Morgan

Potter, tile designer and novelist. Born 69 Gower Street as William Frend de Morgan, to the mathematician Augustus de Morgan. Lifelong friend of William Morris, he designed tiles, stained glass an...

Person, Craft / Design, Literature

23 memorials