BRAILOVSKAYA (née Schmidt) Rimma Nikitichna

April 14, 1877 (Dorpat) — September 28, 1959 (Rome)

Painter, graphic artist, master of decorative and applied arts

Brailovskaya was daughter of a general. She was born and was educated in Dorpat. In 1898 artist L. M. Brailovsky married her; they settled in Moscow. Brailovskaya worked both independently and in collaboration with her husband.  She painted landscapes, genre paintings; worked in the technique of watercolor and tempera. In 1900–1910s Brailovskaya created series of watercolors, which were based on A. S. Pushkin’s fairy tales (The Tale of the Dead Princess, 1907; The Tale of Tsar Saltan, 1915).

Brailovskaya was engaged in decorative and applied arts. She created a series of works in the technique of embroidery, appliqué, painting; she created tapestries and decorative panels. Supposedly, in 1900s Brailovskaya taught at the studio of art embroidery at the Central Stroganov College of Art and Practical trainings. On the basis of her drawings, students of college created a number of curtains and wall panels. Brailovskaya founded her own tailoring shop at Khludovsky Tupik in Moscow, where she took orders for art embroidery. In her artworks Brailovskaya was a skilled stylist, combining the Old Russian and folk art.

Brailovskaya participated in exhibitions of the Society of Russian Watercolorists (1899, 1902–1905), Moscow Association of Artists (1909, 1912, 1913, 1915, and 1916), the New Society of Artists (1909–1915), the society Svobodnoye Tvorchestvo (“Free Art”, 1915, 1916).

In 1918 Brailovskaya together with her husband L. M. Brailovsky, emigrated and lived in Constantinople, Belgrade, since 1925 — in Rome. She together with the husband painted a series of paintings Visions of Old Russia (1920s–1930s). Brailovskaya helped her husband to organize the Museum of Russian Religious Architecture under the Congregation for the Oriental Churches in Vatican. In 1920s–1940s she participated in different exhibitions in many European cities: Rome, Paris, Milan, London, Amsterdam, The Hague, Munich, Budapest and New York. The personal exhibitions of Brailovskaya (together with her husband) were held in Paris (1930) and Vatican (1932).

Works by Rimma Brailovskaya are in many museum collections, including the State Tretyakov Gallery, the Museum of Russian Religious Architecture under the Congregation for the Oriental Churches in Vatican and others.