DELLA-VOS-KARDOVSKAYA (née Della-Vos) Olga Lyudvigovna

September 2, 1875 (Chernigov) — August 9, 1952 (Leningrad)

Painter, graphic artist

Olga Della-Vos was born to a family of an official. She studied art under the guidance of E. E. Schreider in Kharkov (1891–1894). In 1894 she moved to St. Petersburg, entered the Higher Art Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture under the Imperial Academy of Arts (IAKh). Della-Vos studied under V. E. Savinsky, later — in the studio of I. E. Repin. In 1899 she married D. N. Kardovsky, who attended the Repin’s studio as a noncredit student. Later she left the Art Institute.

In 1899–1900 Della-Vos-Kardovskaya together with her husband lived in Munich, in 1901–1902 — in the Crimea, in Alupka. In 1902 she returned to St. Petersburg. Since 1903 she taught painting and drawing at her private school-studio in Tsarskoye Selo. In the same year she became one of the founders of the New Society of Artists, took part in all exhibitions of the society till 1917. Della-Vos-Kardovskaya exposed her works at the Spring exhibition in the halls of the Imperial Academy of Arts in 1903, at the World exhibition in Rome in 1911, at the exhibitions of Moscow Association of Artists and the Union of Russian Artists. In 1912 she traveled through Switzerland, in 1913 she visited Italy, in particular Florence and Rome.

In 1917 Della-Vos-Kardovskaya was one of the first four women-artists, who was nominated as an academician, but because of revolutionary events her nomination was not completed. In 1918–1924 the painter lived in Pereslavl-Zalessky, where she taught in her own studio and art school under the factory Krasnoye Ekho (“Red Echo”). In 1922 Della-Vos-Kardovskaya was conferred a title of a professor of the Academy of Arts. In 1923 she took part in the exhibition of the Association of the artists of Revolutionary Russia (AKhRR).

In 1924 Della-Vos-Kardovskaya moved to Moscow, conducted drawing class at the Industrial art workshops. In 1924–1925 paintings of the artist were shown at the exhibition of Russian art in New York. In 1925, 1926, 1928 she participated in the exhibitions of the group Zhar-Tsvet (“Fiery Flower”). She worked a lot in book illustration. In 1938 the joint exhibition of works by Kardovsky and Della-Vos-Kardovskaya was held in the halls of the USSR Academy of Arts in Moscow.
During the Great Patriotic War Della-Vos-Kardovskaya was evacuated to Pereslavl-Zalessky. After 1945 she lived in Leningrad. In 1953 the memorial exhibition of the artist was organized in the Research Museum of the USSR Academy of Arts.

The flowering of Della-Vos-Kardovskaya’s art fell on 1900s–1910s. The works of that period were painted under the influence of symbolism and art nouveau. Decorative colors with saturated nuances of green, red and blue; expressive lines, outlines and strokes of the paint brush were characteristic for the works of the artist. Paintings and drawings by Della-Vos-Kardovskaya can be reckoned the best and the most characteristic works of the Silver Age art.

Works by Olga Della-Vos-Kardovskaya are in many museum and private collections, including the State Tretyakov Gallery, the State Russian Museum, and the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts.